Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

108 The song of the psalm of David. Mine heart is ready, God, mine heart is ready; I shall sing, and I shall say psalm in my glory. (God, my heart is ready, my heart is ready; I shall sing, yea, I shall sing a song.)^[a]

² My glory, rise thou up, psaltery and harp, rise thou up; I shall rise up early. (My spirit, rise thou up; lute and harp, rise thou up; yea, I shall rise up in the morning.)

³ Lord, I shall acknowledge to thee among peoples; and I shall say psalm to thee among nations. (Lord, I shall praise thee/I shall confess thee/I shall give thanks to thee among the peoples; and I shall sing a song to thee among the nations, or among the heathen.)

⁴ For why, God, thy mercy is great on heavens; and thy truth is till to the clouds. (For, O God, thy love reacheth above the heavens; and thy faithfulness up to the clouds.)

⁵ God, be thou enhanced above heavens; and thy glory over all earth. (God, be thou exalted above the heavens; and let thy glory be over all the earth.)

⁶ That thy darlings be delivered, make thou safe with thy right hand, and hear [thou] me; (Save thy dear ones; yea, save thou us with thy right hand, and answer thou me.)^[b]

⁷ God spake in his holy (place). I shall make full out joy, and I shall part Shechem; and I shall mete the great valley of tabernacles. (God spoke in his holiness/God spoke from his sanctuary, and he said, I shall rejoice, and I shall divide Shechem; and I shall measure out the Succoth Valley.)

⁸ Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the up-taking of mine head. Judah is my king; (Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, and Judah is my sceptre.)

⁹ Moab is the cauldron of mine hope. Into Idumea I shall stretch forth my shoe; aliens be made friends to me. (But Moab is my washbowl. And I shall throw my shoes at Edom; and Philistia shall be made subject to me.)

¹⁰ Who shall lead me forth into a strong city; who shall lead me forth till into Idumea? (Who shall lead me forth into the fortified city? who shall lead me unto Edom?)

¹¹ Whether not thou, God, that hast put us away; and, God, shalt thou not go out in our virtues? (Shalt not thou, God, even though thou hast cast us off, or rejected us? or shalt not thou, God, go out with our hosts, or our armies, any more?)

¹² Give thou help to us (out) of tribulation; for the help of man is vain. (Lord, give thou us help in the time of trouble; for the help of man is worthless, yea, but an empty hope.)

¹³ We shall make virtue in God; and he shall bring our enemies to nought. (With God’s help, we shall do valiantly/we shall have the victory; and he shall bring down our enemies into nothing.)

9 And there was a man of Benjamin, that was called Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a man that was called Benjamin (a Benjamite), a strong man in bodily might.

² And to him was a son, Saul by name, chosen and good(ly); and no man of the sons of Israel was better than he; (and) from the shoulder(s) and above, he appeared over all the people.

³ And the she-asses of Kish, the father of Saul, were lost (And one day the female donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, went missing). And Kish said to Saul his son, Take with thee one of the servants, and rise thou, and go seek the she-asses.

⁴ And when they had gone forth by the hill (country) of Ephraim, and by the land of Shalisha, and they had not found them, they passed forth also by the land of Shalim, and they were not there; but also they passed by the land of Benjamin, and yet they found (them) not.

⁵ And when they had come into the land of Zuph, and had not found (them), Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come thou, and turn we again; lest peradventure my father hath left (off caring about) the female asses, and is busy for us (and is now concerned about us).

⁶ And the servant said to him, Lo! a man of God is in this city, a noble man; all thing that he speaketh, cometh without (a) doubt. Now therefore go we thither, if peradventure he show to us of our way, for which we came (And so now let us go there, perhaps he can show us the way that we should go).

⁷ And Saul said to his servant, Lo! we shall go (there); (but) what shall we bear to the man of God? Bread hath failed in our scrips, and we have no present, that we (can) give to the man of God, neither any other thing.

⁸ Again the servant answered to Saul, and said, Lo! the fourth part of a stater, that is, a shekel, of silver is found (here) in mine hand; give we it to the man of God, that he show to us our way (so that he will show us the way that we should go).

⁹ Sometime in Israel each man going to counsel with God spake thus, Come ye, and go we to the seer; for he, that is said now a prophet, was called sometime a seer (for he, who now is called a prophet, before was called a seer).

¹⁰ And Saul said to his servant, Thy word is the best; come thou, go we. And they went into the city, in which the man of God was (And they went to the city, where the man of God was).

¹¹ And when they went up into the highness of the city, they found damsels going out to draw water, and they said to the damsels, Whether the seer is here? (Is the seer here?)

¹² And the damsels answered, and said to them, He is here; lo! he is before thee; haste thou now, for today he came into the city; for today is sacrifice of the people in the high place. (And the young women answered, and said to them, He is here; lo! he is ahead of thee; haste thou now, for he came into the city today; for there is a sacrifice by all the people at the hill shrine today.)

¹³ Ye shall enter into the city, and at once ye shall find him, before that he ascend into the high place to eat; for the people shall not eat till he come, for he shall (first) bless the sacrifice, and afterward they shall eat that be called (and then afterward they who be called shall eat). Now therefore go ye up, for today ye shall find him.

¹⁴ And they went up into the city. And when they went into the midst of the city, Samuel appeared going out against them, that he should go up into the high place (Samuel appeared coming out toward them, as he went on his way up to the hill shrine).

¹⁴ And Jesus was casting out a fiend [And he was casting out a fiend], and it was dumb. And when he had cast out the fiend, the dumb man spake; and the people wondered.

¹⁵ And some of them said, In Beelzebub, prince of devils, he casteth out devils.

¹⁶ And others tempting asked of him a token from heaven.

¹⁷ And as he saw the thoughts of them, he said to them, Every realm parted against itself, shall be desolate, and an house shall fall on an house.^[a]

¹⁸ And if Satan be parted against himself, how shall his realm stand? For ye say, that I cast out fiends in Beelzebub.

¹⁹ And if I in Beelzebub cast out fiends, in whom cast out your sons [in whom your sons cast out]? Therefore they shall be your doomsmen.

²⁰ But if I cast out fiends in the finger of God, then [soothly] the realm of God is come among you.

²¹ When a strong, armed man keepeth his house, all things that he wieldeth be in peace.

²² But if a stronger than he come upon him, and overcome him, he shall take away all his armour, in which he trusted, and shall deal abroad his robberies [and shall deal abroad his spoils, or robberies].

²³ He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not together with me, scattereth abroad.

²⁴ When an unclean spirit goeth out of a man, he wandereth by dry places, and seeketh rest [When an unclean spirit hath gone out of a man, he wandereth by dry places, seeking rest]; and he finding none, saith, I shall turn again into mine house, from whence I came out.

²⁵ And when he cometh, he findeth it cleansed with besoms, and fair arrayed [and adorned].

²⁶ Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and they enter [in], and dwell there. And the last things of that man be made worse than the former.

²⁷ And it was done, when he had said these things, a woman of the company raised [up] her voice, and said to him, Blessed be the womb that bare thee, and blessed be the teats that thou hast sucked.^[b]

²⁸ And he said, But yea blessed be they [And he said, Rather, blessed be they], that hear the word of God, and keep it.