Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

86 The prayer of David. Lord, bow (down) thine ear, and hear me; for I am needy and poor.

² Keep thou my life, for I am holy; my God, make thou safe thy servant hoping in thee. (Keep thou my life safe, for I am holy; my God, save thou thy servant, who trusteth in thee.)

³ Lord, have thou mercy on me, for I cried all day (long) to thee;

⁴ make thou glad the soul of thy servant; for why, Lord, I have raised my soul to thee (for Lord, I have raised up my soul to thee).

⁵ For thou, Lord, art sweet and mild; and of much mercy to all men inwardly calling thee. (For thou, Lord, art good and forgiving; and hath great love for all who call to thee/and hath great mercy for all who cry to thee.)

⁶ Lord, perceive thou my prayer with ears; and give thou attention to the voice of my beseeching. (Lord, listen thou to my prayer; and give attention to the words of my plea.)

⁷ In the day of my tribulation I cried to thee; for thou heardest me. (In my time of trouble, I cried to thee; for thou shalt answer me.)

⁸ Lord, none among gods is like thee; and none is even to thy works. (Lord, there is no god like thee; and there be no works like thy works/and there be no works equal to thy works.)

⁹ Lord, all folks, whichever thou madest (Lord, all the nations, which thou hast made), shall come, and worship before thee; and they shall glorify thy name.

¹⁰ For thou art full great, and making marvels (For thou art very great, and doing marvellous deeds); thou art God alone.

¹¹ Lord, lead thou me forth in thy way, and I shall enter in thy truth; mine heart be glad, that it dread thy name. (Lord, lead thou me forth in thy way, and I shall walk in thy truth; let my heart be glad, that I fear thy name/that I revere thy name.)

¹² My Lord God, I shall acknowledge to thee in all mine heart; and I shall glorify thy name [into] without end. (My Lord God, I shall praise thee with all my heart; and I shall glorify thy name forever.)

¹³ For thy mercy is great on me; and thou deliveredest my soul from the lower hell. (For thy love is great towards me; and thou hast rescued my soul from the depths of Sheol, or the land of the dead/and thou hast rescued my soul from the grave itself.)

¹⁴ God, wicked men have risen upon me; and the synagogue of mighty men have sought my life; and they have not set forth thee in their sight. (God, the wicked have risen against me; and a company of mighty men have sought my life; and they have no thought of thee.)

¹⁵ And thou, Lord God, doing mercy, and merciful; patient, and of much mercy, and soothfast. (But thou, Lord, art a God who giveth love, and art merciful; yea, thou art patient, and hath great love, and art faithful.)

¹⁶ Behold on me, and have mercy on me, give thou the empire to thy servant; and make thou safe the son of thine handmaid. (Turn to me, and have mercy on me; give thou thy strength to thy servant, and save thou the son of thy servantess.)

¹⁷ Make thou with me a sign in(to) good, that they see, that hate me, and be ashamed (Show thou me a sign of thy goodness, so that those who hate me can see it, and be ashamed); (yea,) for thou, Lord, hast helped me/hast holpen me, and hast comforted me.

¹⁰ Forsooth the word of the Lord was made to Samuel, and said,

¹¹ It repenteth me, that I made Saul king; for he hath forsaken me, and hath not fulfilled my words in work. And Samuel was sorry, and he cried to the Lord in all that night. (I repent, that is, I regret, that I made Saul king; for he hath deserted me, and hath not fulfilled my words in deeds. And Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.)

¹² And (then) when Samuel had risen up by night to go early to Saul, it was told to Samuel, that Saul had come into Carmel, and had raised up to him a sign of victory (and had raised up a victory monument for himself there); and that he had turned again from Amalek, and had passed forth, and had gone down into Gilgal.

¹³ Then Samuel came to Saul, and Saul offered burnt sacrifice to the Lord of the chief things of the preys, which he had brought from Amalek. And the while Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have [ful]filled the word of the Lord. (And when Samuel came to Saul, Saul was offering a burnt sacrifice to the Lord of the chief things of the prey which he had taken from the Amalekites. And when Samuel came over to Saul, Saul said to him, Blessed be thou of the Lord! I have fulfilled the word of the Lord.)

¹⁴ And Samuel said, And what is this voice of flocks (But what is this sound of the flocks), that soundeth in mine ears, and of (the) great beasts, which I hear?

¹⁵ And Saul said, They brought those from Amalek (They were taken from the Amalekites); for the people spared the best sheep and (the best) great beasts, that those should be offered to thy Lord God; and we killed the tother beasts.

¹⁶ And Samuel said to Saul, Suffer thou me (Allow me), and I shall show to thee what things the Lord hath spoken to me in this night. And Saul said to Samuel, Speak thou.

¹⁷ And Samuel said, Whether not, when thou were little in thine own eyes, thou were made head in the lineages of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee into king on Israel; (And Samuel said, Was it not, when thou were small, or insignificant, in thy own eyes, thou were made the head of all the tribes of Israel, and did not the Lord anoint thee king upon Israel?)

¹⁸ and the Lord sent thee into the way, and said, Go thou, and slay the sinners of Amalek, and thou shalt fight against them till to the slaying of them. (and the Lord sent thee on the way, and said, Go thou, and kill those sinners, the Amalekites, and thou shalt fight against them until they all be slaughtered.)

¹⁹ Why therefore heardest thou not the voice of the Lord, but thou were turned to the prey (but instead, thou took that prey), and (so) didest evil in the eyes of the Lord?

²⁰ And Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I heard the voice of the Lord, and I have gone in the way, by which the Lord sent me, and I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have killed Amalek. (And Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I did listen to the Lord’s voice, and I have gone on the way where he sent me, and I have brought Agag, the king of the Amalekites here, and I have killed all the other Amalekites.)

²¹ Forsooth the people took of the prey, sheep and oxen, the first fruits/the chief fruits of those things that be slain, that they make sacrifice to their Lord God in Gilgal. (But the people kept of the prey, sheep and oxen, the first fruits/the chief fruits of those things that should be killed, to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord their God here in Gilgal.)

²² And Samuel said, Whether the Lord will burnt sacrifices, either slain sacrifices, and not more, rather, that men obey to the voice of the Lord? (And Samuel said, Desireth the Lord burnt sacrifices, and slain sacrifices, or rather, that people obey his voice?) Forsooth obedience to him is better than sacrifices, and to take heed to his word is more than to offer the inner fatness of rams;

²³ for it is as the sin of maumetry to fight against God’s behest, and it is as the wickedness of idolatry to not assent to God’s behest. Therefore for that, that thou castedest away the word of the Lord, the Lord casted thee away, that thou be not king. (for it is like the sin of idolatry to fight against God’s command, and it is like the wickedness of idolatry to not assent to God’s command. And so because thou hast thrown away the word of the Lord, the Lord hath thrown thee away, so that thou not be king.)

²⁴ And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have broken the word of the Lord, and thy words; and I dreaded the people, and obeyed to the voice of them; (And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and thy words; for I feared the people, and obeyed their voice;)

²⁵ but now, I beseech thee, bear thou my sin, and turn thou again with me, (so) that I (can) worship the Lord.

²⁶ And Samuel said to Saul, I shall not turn again with thee, for thou castedest away the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath cast away thee, that thou be not king upon Israel. (And Samuel said to Saul, I shall not return with thee, for thou hast thrown away the word of the Lord, and so the Lord hath thrown thee away, so that thou not be king upon Israel.)

²⁷ And Samuel turned to go away; soothly Saul took the end of the mantle of Samuel, which also was rent (and Saul took hold of the end of Samuel’s mantle, and it tore).

²⁸ And Samuel said to him, The Lord hath cut the realm of Israel from thee today (The Lord hath torn away the kingdom of Israel from thee today), and he hath given it to thy neighbour, (who is) better than thou;

²⁹ certainly the Overcomer in Israel shall not spare them that will not obey to him, and he shall not be bowed by repentance; for he is not man, that is, changeable, that he do repentance, (for he is not a man, that is, that he change his mind).

³⁰ And Saul said, I have sinned; but now honour thou me before the elder men of my people, and before Israel, and turn thou again with me, that I worship thy Lord God (and return thou with me, so that I can worship the Lord thy God).

³¹ Therefore Samuel turned again, and followed Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.

5 But a man [Forsooth some man], Ananias by name, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a field,

² and defrauded of the price of the field; and his wife was witting. And he brought a part [And he brought some part], and laid [it] before the feet of the apostles.

³ And Peter said to him, Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thine heart, that thou lie to the Holy Ghost [Forsooth Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thine heart, thee to lie to the Holy Ghost], and to defraud of the price of the field?

⁴ Whether it unsold was not thine; and when it was sold, it was in thy power? Why hast thou put this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.

⁵ Ananias heard these words, and felled down, and was dead [Forsooth Ananias hearing these words, felled down and died]. And great dread was made on all that heard.

⁶ And young men rose [rised], and moved him away, and bare him out, and buried.

⁷ And there was made a space of three hours, and his wife knew not that thing that was done, and entered. [Forsooth there was made as the space of three hours, and the wife of him not knowing that thing that was done, entered in.]

⁸ And Peter answered to her, Woman, say to me, whether ye sold the field for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.

⁹ And Peter said to her, What befelled to you [What soothly came together to you, or accorded], to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Lo! the feet of them that have buried thine husband be at the door, and they shall bear thee out.

¹⁰ At once [Anon] she felled down at his feet, and died. And the young men entered, and found her dead, and they bare her out, and buried [her] to her husband.

¹¹ And great dread was made in all the church, and into all that heard these things.