Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.
53 Foolish people say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They do all kinds of horrible and evil things.
No one does anything good.
2 God looks down from heaven
on all people.
He wants to see if there are any who understand.
He wants to see if there are any who trust in God.
3 All of them have turned away.
They have all become evil.
No one does anything good,
no one at all.
4 Don’t these people who do evil know anything?
They eat up my people as if they were eating bread.
They never call out to God for help.
5 Just look at them! They are filled with terror
even when there is nothing to be afraid of!
People of Israel, God scattered the bones of those who attacked you.
You put them to shame, because God hated them.
6 How I pray that the God who saves Israel will come out of Zion!
God will bless his people with great success again.
Then let the people of Jacob be filled with joy! Let Israel be glad!
Elisha Provides Olive Oil for a Widow
4 The wife of a man from the group of the prophets cried out to Elisha. She said, “My husband is dead. You know how much respect he had for the Lord. But he owed money to someone. And now that person is coming to take my two boys away. They will become his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me. What do you have in your house?”
“I don’t have anything there at all,” she said. “All I have is a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around to all your neighbors. Ask them for empty jars. Get as many as you can. 4 Then go inside your house. Shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars. As each jar is filled, put it over to one side.”
5 The woman left him. Then she shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her. And she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she spoke to one of her sons. She said, “Bring me another jar.”
But he replied, “There aren’t any more left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God about it. He said, “Go and sell the oil. Pay what you owe. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
10 The disciples returned. They told Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him. They went off by themselves to a town called Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds learned about it and followed Jesus. He welcomed them and spoke to them about God’s kingdom. He also healed those who needed to be healed.
12 Late in the afternoon the 12 disciples came to him. They said, “Send the crowd away. They can go to the nearby villages and countryside. There they can find food and a place to stay. There is nothing here.”
13 Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.”
The disciples answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish. We would have to go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 About 5,000 men were there.
But Jesus said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and gave thanks. He broke them into pieces. Then he gave them to the disciples to give to the people. 17 All of them ate and were satisfied. The disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftover pieces.
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