Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 138[a]
Thanksgiving for God’s Favor
1 Of David.
I offer you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart;[b]
before the “gods” I sing your praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and I praise your name[c]
for your kindness and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
3 On the day I cried out, you answered me
and granted strength to my spirit.
4 [d]All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord,
when they hear the words of your mouth.
5 They will sing of the ways of the Lord:
“How great is the Lord’s glory!”
6 For though the Lord is exalted, he cares for the lowly,[e]
but he remains far distant from the proud.
7 Although I walk in the midst of hostility,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and with your right hand[f] you deliver me.
8 The Lord will fulfill his plan for me.
Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever;
do not forsake the work of your hands.[g]
Chapter 6
The Return of the Ark of God. 1 When the Ark of the Lord had been held in Philistine territory for seven months, 2 the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and said, “What should we do with the Ark of the Lord? Tell us how to send it back home.”
3 They answered, “If you return the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty-handed. Rather, send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why he continued to afflict you.”[a] 4 They then asked, “What sort of guilt offering should be made to him?” They answered, “Send five golden tumors and five golden mice, as many as the lords of the Philistines, for the plague was on you all, lords included. 5 You should make offerings in the likeness of tumors and in the likeness of the mice that have been ravaging the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will ease up on you, your gods, and your land.
6 “Why would you harden your hearts, like the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he dealt harshly with them, did they not let them go, and they went their way?
7 [b]“Prepare a cart drawn by two milk cows that have calves but have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take the calves away, leading them home. 8 Take the Ark of the Lord and place it upon the cart, and put the figures of gold that you are sending back as a guilt offering in a box at its side. Then send it off, and let it go its way. 9 Watch it, and if it goes up the road to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is clear that he has brought this great woe upon us. But if it does not, then we shall know that it was not he who punished us, that it happened by chance.”
10 The Ark at Beth-shemesh. The men did this. They took two milk cows and tied them to a cart, shutting up their calves at home. 11 They then put the Ark of the Lord upon the cart along with the box containing the golden mice and the statues of the tumors. 12 The cows went straight up to Beth-shemesh, sticking to the road and lowing as they went along. They did not waver in their course to the right nor the left. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the border with Beth-shemesh.
13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley when they looked up and saw the Ark. They rejoiced at what they saw. 14 The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and it stopped there by a large rock. The people chopped up the wood from the cart and offered up the milk cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. 15 The Levites lowered the Ark down along with the box that contained the objects made of gold and placed them on the large rock. On that day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and performed sacrifices to the Lord.
16 The five lords of the Philistines saw all of this and returned to Ekron that same day. 17 The golden tumors that the Philistines sent back as a guilt offering to the Lord were for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron: one tumor for each city. 18 There were as many golden mice as there were cities under the rule of the five lords of the Philistines, both the fortified cities and the country villages. The large rock upon which they set the Ark of the Lord is in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh to this day.
The Parable of the Sower.[a] 4 When a large crowd gathered together as people from every town flocked to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some of the seed fell along the path and was trampled upon, and the birds of the sky ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 And some fell onto good soil, and when it grew it produced a crop of a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he cried out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Purpose of Parables.[b] 9 Then his disciples asked him what the parable meant. 10 He said, “To you has been granted knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but for others they are made known in parables, so that
‘looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.’
11 The Explanation of the Parable of the Sower.[c]“The meaning of the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. 12 The seed on the path represents those who hear, but then the devil comes and carries off the word from their hearts so that they may not come to believe and be saved. 13 Those on rock are the ones who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a short while, but in time of trial they fall away.
14 “That which has fallen among thorns are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the concerns and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. 15 But that which is on rich soil are the ones who, when they have heard the word with a good and upright heart, keep it and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
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