Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

108 Unto the end, a psalm for David.

² O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.

³ They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.

⁴ Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.

⁵ And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.

⁶ Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.

⁷ When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.

⁸ May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.

⁹ May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

¹⁰ Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.

¹¹ May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.

¹² May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.

¹³ May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.

¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

¹⁵ May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

¹⁶ because he remembered not to shew mercy,

¹⁷ But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.

¹⁸ And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.

¹⁹ May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.

²⁰ This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

²¹ But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,

²² for I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.

²³ I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts.

²⁴ My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil.

²⁵ And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads,

²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to thy mercy.

²⁷ And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.

²⁸ They will curse and thou will bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.

²⁹ Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with the their confusion as with a double cloak.

³⁰ I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.

³¹ Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.

³ And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying: If you turn to the Lord with all your heart, put away the strange gods from among you, Baalim and Astaroth: and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

⁴ Then the children of Israel put away Baalim and Astaroth, and served the Lord only.

⁵ And Samuel said: Gather all Israel to Masphath, that I may pray to the Lord for you.

⁶ And they gathered together to Masphath: and they drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and they fasted on that day, and they said there: We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Masphath.

⁷ And the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Masphath, and the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard this, they were afraid of the Philistines.

⁸ And they said to Samuel: Cease not to cry to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

⁹ And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it whole for a holocaust to the Lord: and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him.

¹⁰ And it came to pass, when Samuel was offering the holocaust, the Philistines began the battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and terrified them, and they were overthrown before the face of Israel.

¹¹ And the men of Israel going out of Masphath pursued after the Philistines, and made slaughter of them till they came under Bethchar.

¹² And Samuel took a stone, and laid it between Masphath and Sen: and he called the place, the Stone of help. And he said: Thus far the Lord hath helped us.

¹³ And the Philistines were humbled, and they did not come any more into the borders of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines, all the days of Samuel.

¹⁴ And the cities, which the Philistines had taken from Israel, were restored to Israel, from Accaron to Geth, and their borders: and he delivered Israel from the hand of the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the Amorrhites.

¹⁵ And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life:

20 And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.

² And he laid hold on the dragon the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

³ And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should no more seduce the nations, till the thousand years be finished. And after that, he must be loosed a little time.

⁴ And I saw seats; and they sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them; and the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not adored the beast nor his image, nor received his character on their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

⁵ The rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ; and shall reign with him a thousand years.