Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Guidance and Protection

For the music director; with the flutes. A psalm of David.^[a]

Jonah Is Angry at Yahweh’s Compassion

4 And this^[a] was greatly displeasing^[b] to Jonah, and he became furious.^{[c] 2} And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, was this not what I said^[d] while I was in my homeland? Therefore I originally fled^[e] to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and having great steadfast love,^[f] and one who relents concerning calamity.^{[g] 3} And so then, Yahweh, please take my life from me, because for me death is better than life!” ⁴ And Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”^[h]

⁵ And Jonah went out from the city and sat down east of the city, and he made for himself a shelter there. And he sat under it in the shade, waiting to see^[i] what would happen with the city. ⁶ And Yahweh God appointed a plant,^[j] and he made it grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. And Jonah was very glad^[k] about the plant. ⁷ So God appointed a worm at daybreak^[l] the next day, and it attacked the plant, and it withered. ⁸ And when the sun rose,^[m] God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he grew faint. And he asked that he could die^[n] and said, “My death is better than my life!” ⁹ So God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry^[o] about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry enough to die!”^[p]

¹⁰ But Yahweh said, “You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. It grew up in a night and it perished in a night!^{[q] 11} And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are^[r] more than one hundred and twenty thousand^[s] people who do not know right from left,^[t] plus many animals?”

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get up and go toward the south^[a] on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ And he got up and^[b] went, and behold, there was a man, an Ethiopian eunuch (a court official of Candace,^[c] queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasury) who had come to worship in Jerusalem ²⁸ and was returning and sitting in his chariot, and reading aloud the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Approach and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it^[d] and^[e] heard him reading aloud Isaiah the prophet and said, “So then, do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “So how could I, unless someone will guide me?” And he invited Philip to come up and^[f] sit with him. ³² Now the passage of scripture that he was reading aloud was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch answered and^[j] said to Philip, “I ask you, about whom does the prophet say this—about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ So Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, proclaimed the good news to him about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”^{[k] 38} And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water—Philip and the eunuch—and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer, for he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he^[l] passed through, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.