Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Foolishness and Wickedness of People.
For the music director; according to [a]Mahalath. A [b]Maskil of David.
53 (A)The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
(B)There is no one who does good.
2 God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of mankind
To see if there is (C)anyone who [c]understands,
Who (D)seeks after God.
3 (E)Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
4 Have the workers of injustice (F)no knowledge,
Who eat up My people like they ate bread,
And have not called upon God?
5 They were in great [d]fear there, (G)where no [e]fear had been;
For God (H)scattered the bones of [f]him who encamped against you;
You (I)put them to shame, because (J)God had rejected them.
6 Oh, that (K)the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of His people,
Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.
The Widow’s Oil
4 Now a woman of the wives of (A)the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and (B)the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except (C)a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go, [a]borrow containers [b]elsewhere for yourself, empty containers from all your neighbors—do not get too few. 4 Then you shall come in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these containers; and you shall set aside what is full.” 5 So she left him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they began bringing the containers to her, and she poured the oil. 6 When (D)the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he said to her, “There [c]are no more containers.” Then the oil stopped. 7 So she came and told (E)the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
10 (A)When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. (B)And taking them with Him, He withdrew privately to a city called (C)Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and He welcomed them and began speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of healing.
Five Thousand Men Fed
12 Now the day [a]was ending, and the twelve came up and said to Him, “Dismiss the crowd, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get [b]something to eat; because here, we are in a secluded place.” 13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!” But they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 (For there were about five thousand men.) But He said to His disciples, “Have them recline to eat (D)in groups of about fifty each.” 15 They did so, and had them all recline. 16 And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up to heaven, He blessed them and broke them, and gave them to the disciples again and again, to serve the crowd. 17 And they all ate and were satisfied; and [c]the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve (E)baskets full.
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