Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
139 O LORD, You have searched me and known.
2 You know my sitting and my rising. You understand my thoughts afar off.
3 You winnow my paths, and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue but that You know it wholly, O LORD.
5 You fortify me behind and before and lay Your hand upon me.
6 Your knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is so high that I cannot attain to it.
13 For You have possessed my core. You have covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wondrously made. Marvelous are Your works; and my soul knows it well!
15 My bones are not hidden from You; though I was made in secret, fashioned beneath, in the Earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was without form; for in Your Book were all things written, days fashioned at a time when there were still none of them.
17 How dear, therefore, are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
1 There was a man of one of the two Ramathaim Zophim, of Mount Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
2 And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children. But Hannah had no children.
3 And this man went up out of his city every year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts in Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli were, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the LORD.
4 And on a day when Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, portions.
5 But to Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah and the LORD had made her barren.
6 And her adversary severely provoked her, trying to make her rage because the LORD had made her barren.
7 And so it was, as often as she went up to the House of the LORD, thus she provoked her, so that she wept and did not eat.
8 Then her husband, Elkanah, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. And Eli the Priest sat upon a stool by one of the posts of the Temple of the LORD.
10 And she was troubled in her mind and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.
11 Also she vowed a vow, and said, “O LORD of Hosts, if You will, look on the trouble of Your handmaid and remember me. And do not forget Your handmaid but give to Your handmaid a male child. Then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life. And no razor shall come upon his head.”
12 And as she continued praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.
13 For Hannah spoke in her heart. Her lips only moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she was drunk.
14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your drunkenness from you.”
15 Then Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
16 “Do not count your handmaid as a wicked woman, for of the abundance of my complaint and my grief I have spoken as of now.”
17 Then Eli answered, and said, “Go in peace. And the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.”
18 She said again, “Let your handmaid find grace in your sight.” So, the woman went her way and ate and no longer looked sad.
25 Three days after Festus had come into the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
2 Then the High Priest and the chief of the Jews appeared before him against Paul. And they pleaded with him,
3 and asked (as a favor) if he would summon him to Jerusalem, so they could make an ambush and kill him along the way.
4 But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea. And that he himself would go there shortly.
5 “Therefore, let those among you who are able come down,” he said, “And if there is any fault in the man, let them accuse him."
6 Now, after he had stayed among them no more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day sat in the judgment seat, and commanded Paul to be brought.
7 And when he had come, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem, stood around him and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul (of which they could present no plain proof),
8 to which he answered that he had not offended in anything - either against the Law of the Jews, or against the Temple, or against Caesar.
9 Yet Festus, wanting to curry favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, “Will you go up to Jerusalem and be judged of these things before me there?”
10 Then Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.
11 “For if I have done wrong, or committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is nothing in these things of which they accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
12 Then, when Festus had spoken with the Council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go.”
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