Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁰ All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You [affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You]!

¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power,

¹² To make known to the sons of men God’s mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

¹⁵ The eyes of all wait for You [looking, watching, and expecting] and You give them their food in due season.

¹⁶ You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor.

¹⁷ The Lord is [rigidly] righteous in all His ways and gracious and merciful in all His works.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth.

³⁸ Elisha came back to Gilgal during a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, Set on the big pot and cook pottage for the sons of the prophets.

³⁹ Then one went into the field to gather herbs and gathered from a wild vine his lap full of wild gourds, and returned and cut them up into the pot of pottage, for they were unknown to them.

⁴⁰ So they poured it out for the men to eat. But as they ate of the pottage, they cried out, O man of God, there is death in the pot! And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, Bring meal [as a symbol of God’s healing power]. And he cast it into the pot and said, Pour it out for the people that they may eat. Then there was no harm in the pot.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples urged Him saying, Rabbi, eat something.

³² But He assured them, I have food (nourishment) to eat of which you know nothing and have no idea.

³³ So the disciples said one to another, Has someone brought Him something to eat?

³⁴ Jesus said to them, My food (nourishment) is to do the will (pleasure) of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish and completely finish His work.

³⁵ Do you not say, It is still four months until harvest time comes? Look! I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see how they are already white for harvesting.

³⁶ Already the reaper is getting his wages [he who does the cutting now has his reward], for he is gathering fruit (crop) unto life eternal, so that he who does the planting and he who does the reaping may rejoice together.

³⁷ For in this the saying holds true, One sows and another reaps.

³⁸ I sent you to reap a crop for which you have not toiled. Other men have labored and you have stepped in to reap the results of their work.