Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

53 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They have corrupted and done abominable wickedness. There is no one that does good.

² God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who would understand and seek God.

³ Everyone has gone back. They are altogether corrupt. There is no one who does good; no, not one.

⁴ Do not the workers of iniquity know that they eat up my people as they eat bread? They do not call upon God.

⁵ There they were in fear where no fear was. For God has scattered the bones of him who besieged you. You have put them to confusion because God has cast them off.

⁶ Oh, give salvation to Israel out of Zion! When God turns the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice; and Israel shall be glad. To him who excels on Neginoth: A Psalm of David, to give instruction, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, “Is not David hidden among us?”

¹⁰ Then came the Word of the LORD to Samuel, saying,

¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king; for he has turned from Me and has not performed My Commandments.” And Samuel was moved and cried to the LORD all night.

¹² And when Samuel arose early to meet Saul in the morning, one told Samuel, saying, “Saul has gone to Carmel. And behold, he has made himself a place there, from where he returned and departed and has gone down to Gilgal.”

¹³ Then Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you of the LORD! I have fulfilled the Commandment of the LORD!”

¹⁴ But Samuel said, “What, then, does the bleating of the sheep in my ears mean, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”

¹⁵ And Saul answered, “They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, to sacrifice them to the LORD your God. And the rest we have destroyed.”

¹⁶ Again, Samuel said to Saul, “Let me tell you what the LORD has said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Say on.”

¹⁷ Then Samuel said, “When you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? For the LORD anointed you king over Israel.

¹⁸ “And the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go and destroy those sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until you destroy them!’

¹⁹ “Now, why have you not obeyed the Voice of the LORD, but have turned to the prey and have done wickedly in the sight of the LORD?”

²⁰ And Saul said to Samuel, “Yea, I have obeyed the Voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have destroyed the Amalekites.

²¹ “But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen and the best of the things which should have been destroyed, to offer to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

²² And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great a pleasure in Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices as when the Voice of the LORD is obeyed? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams.

²³ “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft; and transgression is wickedness and idolatry. Because you have cast away the Word of the LORD, therefore He has cast away you from being king.”

²² And I saw no Temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it.

²³ And their city has no need of the Sun, nor of the Moon, to shine in it. For the Glory of God lit it. And the Lamb is the Light of it.

²⁴ And the people who are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the kings of the Earth shall bring their glory and honor to it.

²⁵ And the gates of it shall not be shut by day. For there shall be no night there.

²⁶ And the glory and honor of the Gentiles shall be brought into it.

²⁷ And there shall enter into it no unclean thing, nor whatever works abomination or lies; but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

22 And he showed me a pure river of water of life - clear as crystal - proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb.

² In the midst of the street of it - and on either side of the river - was the Tree of Life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits and gave fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree served to heal the nations.

³ And there shall no longer be any curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

⁴ And they shall see His face. And His Name shall be on their foreheads.

⁵ And there shall be no night there. And they need no lamp, nor light of the Sun. For the Lord God gives them Light. And they shall reign forevermore.