Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.

¹ ¶ I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

² O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

³ O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; thou gavest me life from my descent into the grave.

⁴ Let his merciful ones sing unto the LORD, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

⁵ For his anger endures but a moment; in his will is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

⁶ ¶ And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

⁷ LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.

⁸ I will cry unto thee, O GOD; and unto the Lord will I make supplication.

⁹ What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?

¹⁰ Hear, O LORD and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.

¹¹ Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness;

¹² to the end that I may sing glory unto thee and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

¹² Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on.

¹³ And the woman said, Why then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king speaks this word as one who is guilty in that the king does not bring home again his banished.

¹⁴ For it is certain that we die and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither does God respect any person; yet he does devise means that his outcasts not be expelled from him.

¹⁵ Now, therefore, that I have come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. But thy handmaid said to herself, I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will perform the word of his handmaid.

¹⁶ For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

¹⁷ Then thy handmaid said, Let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil; and let the LORD thy God be with thee.

¹⁸ Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

¹⁹ And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, By the life of thy soul, my lord the king, I can not turn to the right hand or to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken; for thy slave Joab, he commanded me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thy handmaid;

²⁰ to bring about this form of speech thy slave Joab has done this thing; but my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know that which is done in the earth.

²¹ ¶ Then the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing; go, therefore, bring the young man Absalom again.

²² And Joab fell to the ground on his face and worshipped and blessed the king, and Joab said, Today thy slave knows that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has fulfilled the word of his slave.

²³ So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ But the king said, Let him go to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and did not see the king’s face.

26 ¶ Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself:

² I esteem myself blessed, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee concerning all the things of which I am accused of the Jews,

³ especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews; therefore, I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

⁴ My manner of life from my youth, which from the beginning was among my own nation at Jerusalem, is known of all the Jews,

⁵ who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most perfect sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶ And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers;

⁷ unto which promise our twelve tribes, constantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

⁸ Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?

⁹ I verily had thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰ Which things I also did in Jerusalem, and I shut up many of the saints in prison, having received authority from the princes of the priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

¹¹ And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.