Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

138 By David. I confess Thee, with all my heart, Before the gods I do praise Thee.

² I bow myself toward Thy holy temple, And I confess Thy name, For Thy kindness, and for Thy truth, For Thou hast made great Thy saying above all Thy name.

³ In the day I called, when Thou dost answer me, Thou dost strengthen me in my soul [with] strength.

⁴ O Jehovah, all kings of earth confess Thee, When they have heard the sayings of Thy mouth.

⁵ And they sing in the ways of Jehovah, For great [is] the honour of Jehovah.

⁶ For high [is] Jehovah, and the lowly He seeth, And the haughty from afar He knoweth.

⁷ If I walk in the midst of distress Thou quickenest me, Against the anger of mine enemies Thou sendest forth Thy hand, And Thy right hand doth save me.

⁸ Jehovah doth perfect for me, O Jehovah, Thy kindness [is] to the age, The works of Thy hands let not fall!

5 And the Philistines have taken the ark of God, and bring it in from Eben-Ezer to Ashdod,

² and the Philistines take the ark of God and bring it into the house of Dagon, and set it near Dagon.

³ And the Ashdodites rise early on the morrow, and lo, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the ark of Jehovah; and they take Dagon, and put it back to its place.

⁴ And they rise early in the morning on the morrow, and lo, Dagon is fallen on its face to the earth, before the ark of Jehovah, and the head of Dagon, and the two palms of its hands are cut off at the threshold, only the fishy part hath been left to him;

⁵ therefore the priests of Dagon, and all those coming into the house of Dagon, tread not on the threshold of Dagon, in Ashdod, till this day.

⁶ And the hand of Jehovah is heavy on the Ashdodites, and He maketh them desolate, and smiteth them with emerods, Ashdod and its borders.

⁷ And the men of Ashdod see that [it is] so, and have said, `The ark of the God of Israel doth not abide with us, for hard hath been His hand upon us, and upon Dagon our god.'

⁸ And they send and gather all the princes of the Philistines unto them, and say, `What do we do to the ark of the God of Israel?' and they say, `To Gath let the ark of the God of Israel be brought round;' and they bring round the ark of the God of Israel;

⁹ and it cometh to pass after they have brought it round, that the hand of Jehovah is against the city -- a very great destruction; and He smiteth the men of the city, from small even unto great; and break forth on them do emerods.

¹⁰ And they send the ark of God to Ekron, and it cometh to pass, at the coming in of the ark of God to Ekron, that the Ekronites cry out, saying, `They have brought round unto us the ark of the God of Israel, to put us to death -- and our people.'

¹¹ And they send and gather all the princes of the Philistines, and say, `Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and it turneth back to its place, and it doth not put us to death -- and our people;' for there hath been a deadly destruction throughout all the city, very heavy hath the hand of God been there,

¹² and the men who have not died have been smitten with emerods, and the cry of the city goeth up into the heavens.

5 For we have known that if our earthly house of the tabernacle may be thrown down, a building from God we have, an house not made with hands -- age-during -- in the heavens,

² for also in this we groan, with our dwelling that is from heaven earnestly desiring to clothe ourselves,

³ if so be that, having clothed ourselves, we shall not be found naked,

⁴ for we also who are in the tabernacle do groan, being burdened, seeing we wish not to unclothe ourselves, but to clothe ourselves, that the mortal may be swallowed up of the life.

⁵ And He who did work us to this self-same thing [is] God, who also did give to us the earnest of the Spirit;