Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁰ I have found David my slave; I anointed him with the oil of my holiness,

²¹ with whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.

²² The enemy shall not overcome him, nor the son of iniquity break him down.

²³ But I will break down his foes before his face and smite those that hate him.

²⁴ But my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

²⁵ In the same manner I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers.

²⁶ He shall call me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my saving health.

²⁷ Also I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.

²⁸ I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.

²⁹ I will also make his seed to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.

³⁰ If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments,

³¹ if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments,

³² then I will visit their rebellion with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.

³³ Nevertheless I will not take my mercy from him, neither will I falsify my truth.

³⁴ I will not profane my covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

³⁵ Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

³⁶ His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the sun before me.

³⁷ It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

14 ¶ Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house.

² And David, understanding that the LORD had confirmed him king over Israel and had lifted up his kingdom above his people Israel,

¹⁶ ¶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city completely given over to idolatry.

¹⁷ Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with those that he met with.

¹⁸ Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? others, He seems to be a setter forth of new gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹ And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine is, of which thou speakest?

²⁰ For thou bringest certain new things to our ears; we desire, therefore, to know what these things mean.

²¹ (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.)

²² ¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, {Mars’ Hill} and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

²³ For as I passed by and beheld your sanctuaries, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you.

²⁴ The God that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;

²⁵ neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things

²⁶ and has made of one blood all the lineage of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the seasons (which he has limited) and the bounds of their habitation;

²⁷ that they should seek the Lord, if in any manner they might reach out to touch him and find him though he is not far from each one of us;

²⁸ for in him we live and move and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also of his lineage.

²⁹ Being therefore of the lineage of God, we ought not to think that which is Divine is like unto gold or silver or stone, bearing the mark of art and man’s imagination.

³⁰ For the times of this ignorance God overlooked, but he now commands all men everywhere to repent

³¹ because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of whom he has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead.