Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Praise for deliverance.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

5 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. ² In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was thou that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and Jehovah said to thee, Thou shalt be shepherd of my people Israel, and thou shalt be ^[a]prince over Israel. ³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Jehovah: and they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. ⁵ In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶ And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spake unto David, saying, ^[b]Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither; thinking, David cannot come in hither. ⁷ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David. ⁸ And David said on that day, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, ^[c]and smite the lame and the blind, ^[d]that are hated of David’s soul. Wherefore they say, ^[e]There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house. ⁹ And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. ¹⁰ And David waxed greater and greater; for Jehovah, the God of hosts, was with him.

¹⁶ I say again, Let no man think me foolish; but if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I also may glory a little. ¹⁷ That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying. ¹⁸ Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. ¹⁹ For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. ²⁰ For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. ²¹ I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. ²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. ²³ Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. ²⁴ Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. ²⁵ Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my ^[a]countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. ^28 [b]Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not? ³⁰ If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. ^31 [c]The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed ^[d]for evermore knoweth that I lie not. ³² In Damascus the ^[e]governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: ³³ and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.