Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees.

¹ ¶ Out of the depths I cry unto thee, O LORD.

² Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

³ If thou, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall endure?

⁴ Therefore there is forgiveness close to thee, that thou may be feared.

⁵ ¶ I have waited for the LORD, my soul has waited, and for his word I have waited.

⁶ My soul has waited for the Lord more than those that watch for the morning: I say, more than those that watch for the morning.

⁷ Let Israel wait for the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy and plenteous redemption close to him.

⁸ And he shall ransom Israel from all his sins.

20 ¶ And David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is my iniquity or what is my sin before thy father that he seeks my life?

² And he said unto him, No, in no wise; thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show it me, and why should my father hide this thing from me? It shall not be so.

³ And David swore moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knows that I have found grace in thine eyes, and he saith in himself, Let Jonathan not know this lest he be grieved; but truly as the LORD lives and as thy soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.

⁴ Then Jonathan said unto David, Whatever thy soul saith, I will do it for thee.

⁵ And David replied unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at food, but thou shalt let me go and hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day.

⁶ If thy father at all misses me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem, his city, for all those of his lineage have an anniversary sacrifice.

⁷ If he should say, It is well; thy slave shall have peace; but if he is very wroth, then be sure that the evil is determined in him.

⁸ Therefore, thou shalt deal in mercy with thy slave, for thou hast brought thy slave into a covenant of the LORD with thee; notwithstanding, if there is iniquity in me, slay me thyself, for why should thou bring me to thy father?

⁹ ¶ And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee, for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would I not be obliged to show it to thee?

¹⁰ Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? Or what if thy father answers thee roughly?

¹¹ And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And both of them went out into the field.

¹² Then Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I shall have asked my father tomorrow at this time or after tomorrow and, behold, if there is good toward David and I then do not send unto thee and show it to thee,

¹³ the LORD do so and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do thee evil, then I will show it to thee and send thee away that thou may go in peace; and the LORD be with thee as he has been with my father.

¹⁴ And if I live, thou shalt show me the mercy of the LORD, but if I am dead,

¹⁵ thou shalt not cut off thy mercy from my house for ever. When the LORD has cut off one by one the enemies of David from the face of the earth, remove even Jonathan from thy house if I fail thee and require it at the hand of David’s enemies.

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David.

¹⁷ And Jonathan swore unto David again because he loved him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon, and thou shalt be missed because thy seat will be empty.

¹⁹ And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself on the day of the work and shalt remain by the stone Ezel;

²⁰ and I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof as though I shot at a mark.

²¹ And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee; take them, then come thou, for there is peace unto thee and no hurt, as the LORD lives.

²² But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee, then go away, for the LORD has sent thee away.

²³ And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, let the LORD be between thee and me for ever.

²⁴ ¶ So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon was come, the king sat down to eat bread.

²⁵ And the king sat upon his seat as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall; and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place was empty.

8 ¶ Likewise, brethren, we make known unto you the grace of God bestowed on the congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of Macedonia,

² how that in a great trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

³ For to their power, I bear record, and even beyond their power they were willing of themselves,

⁴ praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the grace and take upon us the fellowship of the ministry to the saints.

⁵ And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and then unto us by the will of God.

⁶ Insomuch that we exhorted Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete among you the same grace also.

⁷ ¶ Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith and in word and in knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.