Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

¹ ¶ Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

² Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

³ God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

⁴ For, behold, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

⁵ They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled and hasted away.

⁶ Fear took hold upon them there and pain as of a woman in travail.

⁷ Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

⁸ ¶ As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of the hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish it for ever. Selah.

⁹ We have conceived according to thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

¹⁰ According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth; thy right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹ Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion and go round about her; tell the towers thereof.

¹³ Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generation following.

¹⁴ For this God is our God eternally and for ever; he will be our guide even unto death.

2 ¶ And it came to pass after this that David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Where shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron.

² So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, who had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel.

³ And David brought up his men that were with him, each one with his household, and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.

⁴ And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, The men of Jabeshgilead buried Saul.

⁵ And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabeshgilead and said unto them, Blessed shall ye be of the LORD that ye have showed this mercy unto your lord, even unto Saul and have buried him.

⁶ And now the LORD show mercy and truth unto you; and I also will requite you this kindness because ye have done this thing.

⁷ Therefore, now let your hands be strengthened and be ye valiant; for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them.

⁸ ¶ But Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim

⁹ and made him king over Gilead and over the Ashurites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all Israel.

¹⁰ Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel and reigned two years. Only the house of Judah followed David.

¹¹ And the number of days that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

⁸ Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye reign as kings without us, and I wish ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

⁹ For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.

¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

¹¹ Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are ill clad and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place

¹² and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it;

¹³ being blasphemed, we intreat; we are made as the filth of this world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.