Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁵ And three of the thirty captains went down to the rock, wherein David was, to the cave of Odollam, when the Philistines encamped in the valley of Raphaim.

¹⁶ And David was in a hold, and the garrison of the Philistines in Bethlehem.

¹⁷ And David longed, and said: O that some man would give me water of the cistern of Bethlehem, which is in the gate.

¹⁸ And these three broke through the midst of the camp of the Philistines, and drew water out of the cistern of Bethlehem, which was in the gate, and brought it to David to drink: and he would not drink of it, but rather offered it to the Lord,

¹⁹ Saying: God forbid that I should do this in the sight of my God, and should drink the blood of these men: for with the danger of their lives they have brought me the water. And therefore he would not drink. These things did the three most valiant.

¹⁵ Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

¹⁶ For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and in him.

¹⁷ And he is before all, and by him all things consist.

¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy:

¹⁹ Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell;

²⁰ And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.

²¹ And you, whereas you were some time alienated and enemies in mind in evil works:

²² Yet now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unspotted, and blameless before him:

²³ If so ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and immoveable from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which is preached in all the creation that is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister.