Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song or Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise; this is my glory.

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

³ I will praise thee, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.

⁴ For thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy truth reaches unto the heavens.

⁵ Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth;

⁶ ¶ that thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.

⁷ God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem and mete out the valley of Succoth.

⁸ Gilead shall be mine; Manasseh shall be mine; Ephraim also shall be the strength of my head; Judah shall be my lawgiver;

⁹ Moab shall be my washpot; over Edom I will cast my shoe; over Philistia I will triumph.

¹⁰ Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

¹¹ Surely thou, O God, who had cast us off and did not, O God, go forth with our hosts.

¹² Give us help from trouble; for the salvation of man is deception.

¹³ Through God we shall do valiantly, for he shall tread down our enemies again.

9 ¶ Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a son of Jemini, {Benjamin} a mighty man of power.

² And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. Among the sons of Israel there was not a nicer person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

³ ¶ And the she asses of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, his son, Take now one of the slaves with thee, and arise, go seek the asses.

⁴ And he passed through Mount Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shalim, and they were not there, and he passed through the land of Jemini, {or of Benjamin} but they did not find them.

⁵ And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought for us.

⁶ And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass; now let us go there; peradventure he can show us our way that we should go.

⁷ Then Saul replied unto his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is spent in our vessels, and we have nothing to present unto the man of God. What do we have?

⁸ And the servant answered Saul again and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver; this will I give to the man of God to tell us our way.

⁹ (Beforetime in Israel when anyone went to enquire of God, he spoke thus, Come, and let us go to the seer, for he that is now called a Prophet was called a Seer before.)

¹⁰ Then Saul said to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was.

¹¹ ¶ And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water and said unto them, Is the seer here?

¹² And they answered them and said, He is; behold, he is before you; make haste now, for he came today to the city, for there is a sacrifice of the people today in the high place.

¹³ As soon as you are come into the city, ye shall straightway find him before he goes up to the high place to eat, for the people will not eat until he comes because he must bless the sacrifice, and afterwards those that are invited eat. Now therefore go up, for about this time ye shall find him.

¹⁴ And they went up into the city. And when they were come into the city, behold, Samuel came out before them to go up to the high place.

¹⁴ ¶ And he was casting out a demon, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the demon was gone out, the one who had been dumb spoke; and the people marvelled.

¹⁵ But some of them said, He casts out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the demons.

¹⁶ And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷ But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every house or city divided against itself will not remain.

¹⁸ If Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out demons through Beelzebub.

¹⁹ And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.

²⁰ But if I with the finger of God cast out the demons, certainly the kingdom of God is come upon you.

²¹ When an armed strong man keeps his palace, his goods are in peace;

²² but when another stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he takes from him all his arms in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

²³ He that is not with me is against me, and he that does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴ When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, I will return unto my house from which I came out.

²⁵ And when he comes, he finds it swept and garnished.

²⁶ Then he goes, and takes unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

²⁷ ¶ And it came to pass as he spoke these things, a certain woman of the crowd lifted up her voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the breasts which thou hast sucked.

²⁸ But he said, Rather, blessed are those that hear the word of God and keep it.