Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁰ “I have found David, My servant. With My holy oil have I anointed him.

²¹ “Therefore, My hand shall be established with him and My arm shall strengthen him.

²² “The enemy shall not oppress him, nor shall the wicked hurt him.

²³ “But I will destroy his foes before his face and plague those who hate him.

²⁴ “My truth also, and My mercy, shall be with him; and in My Name shall his horn be exalted.

²⁵ “I will also set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the floods.

²⁶ “He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’

²⁷ “Also, I will make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the Earth.

²⁸ “I will keep My mercy for him for evermore; and My Covenant shall stand fast with him.

²⁹ “I will also make his Seed endure forever, and his Throne as the days of Heaven.

³⁰ “If his children forsake My Law and do not walk in My Judgments,

³¹ “if they break my statutes and do not keep My Commandments,

³² “then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with strokes.

³³ “Yet, I will not take My lovingkindness from him, nor will I falsify My truth.

³⁴ “Nor will I break My Covenant, nor alter the thing that has gone out of My lips.

³⁵ “I have sworn once, by My holiness, that I will not fail David.

³⁶ “His Seed shall endure forever; and his Throne shall be as the Sun before Me.

³⁷ “He shall be established forevermore as the Moon, and as a faithful witness in the heaven.” Selah.

¹⁵ And three of the thirty captains went to a rock, to David, into the cave of Adullam. And the army of the Philistines camped in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶ And when David was in the stronghold, the Philistines garrison was at Bethlehem.

¹⁷ And David longed, and said, “Oh, that one would give me drink from the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate.”

¹⁸ Then these three broke through the army of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink it, but poured it out as an oblation to the LORD,

¹⁹ and said, “Do not let my God allow me to do this. Should I drink the blood of these men’s lives? For they have jeopardized their lives to bring it.” Therefore, he would not drink it. These things these three mighty men did.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creation.

¹⁶ For by Him were all things created which are in Heaven and which are on Earth—things visible and invisible —whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

¹⁷ And He is before all things. And in Him all things consist.

¹⁸ And He is the Head of the body of the Church. He is the Beginning; Firstborn from the dead; so that in all things He might have preeminence.

¹⁹ For in Him was all fullness pleased to dwell.

²⁰ And through Him were all things reconciled to Himself, having made peace by the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven.

²¹ And you also - who were in times past estranged and hostile because your minds were set on evil works - He has now reconciled

²² in the body of His flesh through death; to present you as holy and blameless and beyond reproach in His sight

²³ if you continue to be grounded and established in the faith and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard (having been preached to all creation under Heaven, and to which I, Paul, am a minister).