Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

108 A Song, a Psalm of David. Prepared is my heart, O God, I sing, yea, I sing praise, also my honour.

² Awake, psaltery and harp, I awake the dawn.

³ I thank Thee among peoples, O Jehovah, And I praise Thee among the nations.

⁴ For great above the heavens [is] Thy kindness, And unto the clouds Thy truth.

⁵ Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, And above all the earth Thy honour.

⁶ That Thy beloved ones may be delivered, Save [with] Thy right hand, and answer us.

⁷ God hath spoken in His holiness: I exult, I apportion Shechem, And the valley of Succoth I measure,

⁸ Mine [is] Gilead, mine [is] Manasseh, And Ephraim [is] the strength of my head, Judah [is] my lawgiver,

⁹ Moab [is] a pot for my washing, Upon Edom I cast my shoe, Over Philistia I shout habitually.

¹⁰ Who doth bring me in to the fenced city? Who hath led me unto Edom?

¹¹ Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off? And Thou goest not out, O God, with our hosts!

¹² Give to us help from adversity, And vain is the salvation of man.

¹³ In God we do mightily, And He doth tread down our adversaries!

8 And it cometh to pass, when Samuel [is] aged, that he maketh his sons judges over Israel.

² And the name of his first-born son is Joel, and the name of his second Abiah, judges in Beer-Sheba:

³ and his sons have not walked in his ways, and turn aside after the dishonest gain, and take a bribe, and turn aside judgment.

⁴ And all the elders of Israel gather themselves together, and come in unto Samuel to Ramath,

⁵ and say unto him, `Lo, thou hast become aged, and thy sons have not walked in thy ways; now, appoint to us a king, to judge us, like all the nations.'

⁶ And the thing is evil in the eyes of Samuel, when they have said, `Give to us a king to judge us;' and Samuel prayeth unto Jehovah.

⁷ And Jehovah saith unto Samuel, `Hearken to the voice of the people, to all that they say unto thee, for thee they have not rejected, but Me they have rejected, from reigning over them.

⁸ According to all the works that they have done from the day of My bringing them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, when they forsake Me, and serve other gods -- so they are doing also to thee.

⁹ And now, hearken to their voice; only, surely thou dost certainly protest to them, and hast declared to them the custom of the king who doth reign over them.'

¹⁰ And Samuel speaketh all the words of Jehovah unto the people who are asking from him a king,

¹¹ and saith, `This is the custom of the king who doth reign over you: Your sons he doth take, and hath appointed for himself among his chariots, and among his horsemen, and they have run before his chariots;

¹² also to appoint for himself heads of thousands, and heads of fifties; also to plow his plowing, and to reap his reaping; and to make instruments of his war, and instruments of his charioteer.

¹³ `And your daughters he doth take for perfumers, and for cooks, and for bakers;

¹⁴ and your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards -- the best -- he doth take, and hath given to his servants.

¹⁵ And your seed and your vineyards he doth tithe, and hath given to his eunuchs, and to his servants.

¹⁶ And your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your young men -- the best, and your asses, he doth take, and hath prepared for his own work;

¹⁷ your flock he doth tithe, and ye are to him for servants.

¹⁸ And ye have cried out in that day because of the king whom ye have chosen for yourselves, and Jehovah doth not answer you in that day.'

¹⁹ And the people refuse to hearken to the voice of Samuel, and say, `Nay, but a king is over us,

²⁰ and we have been, even we, like all the nations; and our king hath judged us, and gone out before us, and fought our battles.'

²¹ And Samuel heareth all the words of the people, and speaketh them in the ears of Jehovah;

²² and Jehovah saith unto Samuel, `Hearken to their voice, and thou hast caused to reign over them a king.' And Samuel saith unto the men of Israel, `Go ye each to his city.'

⁷ And when the thousand years may be finished, the Adversary shall be loosed out of his prison,

⁸ and he shall go forth to lead the nations astray, that are in the four corners of the earth -- Gog and Magog -- to gather them together to war, of whom the number [is] as the sand of the sea;

⁹ and they did go up over the breadth of the land, and did surround the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, and there came down fire from God out of the heaven, and devoured them;

¹⁰ and the Devil, who is leading them astray, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [are] the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night -- to the ages of the ages.

¹¹ And I saw a great white throne, and Him who is sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven did flee away, and place was not found for them;

¹² and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and scrolls were opened, and another scroll was opened, which is that of the life, and the dead were judged out of the things written in the scrolls -- according to their works;

¹³ and the sea did give up those dead in it, and the death and the hades did give up the dead in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works;

¹⁴ and the death and the hades were cast to the lake of the fire -- this [is] the second death;

¹⁵ and if any one was not found written in the scroll of the life, he was cast to the lake of the fire.