Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods I will sing praises unto thee.

² I will worship the temple of thy holiness and praise thy name above thy mercy and thy truth; for thou hast made thy name to be magnificent and raised up thy spoken word above all things.

³ In the day when I called, thou didst answer me and strengthen me with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hearken unto the spoken words from thy mouth.

⁵ Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

⁶ ¶ For the LORD, who is high and lifted up, looks upon the humble, but the proud he does not know.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me; thou shalt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

⁸ The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; thy mercy, O LORD, endures for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.

6 ¶ And the ark of the LORD was in the land of the Philistines seven months.

² Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we shall return it to his place.

³ And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but ye shall pay unto him the expiation of guilt; then ye shall be healed, and ye shall know why his hand was not removed from you.

⁴ Then said they, What shall be the expiation of guilt which we shall pay unto him? They answered, Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden rats, according to the number of the cardinals of the Philistines, for the same plague that is on you is also on your cardinals.

⁵ Therefore, ye shall make images of your hemorrhoids and images of your rats that destroy the land, and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you and from off your gods and from off your land.

⁶ Why then do ye harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had dealt thus among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

⁷ Now, therefore, make a new cart and take two milk cows, on which no yoke has been placed and tie the cows to the cart and bring their calves home from them.

⁸ Then ye shall take the ark of the LORD and lay it upon the cart and put the jewels of gold, which ye pay him for expiation of guilt, in a coffer by the side thereof, and let it go.

⁹ And see if it goes up by the way of his own border to Bethshemesh, then he has done us this great evil, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was an accident that happened to us.

¹⁰ ¶ And the men did so and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.

¹¹ Then they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart and the coffer with the rats of gold and the images of their hemorrhoids.

¹² And the cows went straight down the way of Bethshemesh and went along the highway, lowing as they went and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left, and the cardinals of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.

¹³ And those of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it.

¹⁴ And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stopped there, for there was a great stone there; and they clave the wood of the cart and offered the cows in a burnt offering unto the LORD.

¹⁵ And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the coffer that was with it, in which were the jewels of gold, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.

¹⁶ And when the five cardinals of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

¹⁷ These, therefore are the golden hemorrhoids which the Philistines returned in expiation for their guilt unto the LORD, for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one,

¹⁸ and the golden rats, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five cardinals; a ransom for those of the fenced cities and for the country dwellers even unto the great stone of Abel, upon which they placed the ark of the LORD in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite, and this is remembered unto this day.

⁴ ¶ And when many people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, he spoke by a parable:

⁵ A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the way, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

⁶ And some fell upon the rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.

⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

⁸ And some fell on good ground and sprang up and bore fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

⁹ And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

¹⁰ And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.

¹¹ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

¹² Those along the way are those that hear; then comes the devil and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

¹³ Those on the rock are those that when they hear, receive the word with joy, but these have no root, who for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away.

¹⁴ And that which fell among thorns are those who when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection.

¹⁵ But that on the good ground are those who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.