Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

14 To the Overseer. -- By David. A fool hath said in his heart, `God is not;' They have done corruptly, They have done abominable actions, There is not a doer of good.

² Jehovah from the heavens Hath looked on the sons of men, To see if there is a wise one -- seeking God.

³ The whole have turned aside, Together they have been filthy: There is not a doer of good, not even one.

⁴ Have all working iniquity not known? Those consuming my people have eaten bread, Jehovah they have not called.

⁵ There they have feared a fear, For God [is] in the generation of the righteous.

⁶ The counsel of the poor ye cause to stink, Because Jehovah [is] his refuge.

⁷ `Who doth give from Zion the salvation of Israel? When Jehovah doth turn back [To] a captivity of His people, Jacob doth rejoice -- Israel is glad!

10 And it cometh to pass afterwards, that the king of the Bene-Ammon dieth, and Hanun his son reigneth in his stead,

² and David saith, `I do kindness with Hanun son of Nahash, as his father did with me kindness;' and David sendeth to comfort him by the hand of his servants concerning his father, and the servants of David come in to the land of the Bene-Ammon.

³ And the heads of the Bene-Ammon say unto Hanun their lord, `Is David honouring thy father in thine eyes because he hath sent to thee comforters? for to search the city, and to spy it, and to overthrow it, hath not David sent his servants unto thee?'

⁴ And Hanun taketh the servants of David, and shaveth off the half of their beard, and cutteth off their long robes in the midst -- unto their buttocks, and sendeth them away;

⁵ and they declare [it] to David, and he sendeth to meet them, for the men have been greatly ashamed, and the king saith, `Abide in Jericho till your beard doth spring up -- then ye have returned.'

⁹ Because of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

¹⁰ to your walking worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the knowledge of God,

¹¹ in all might being made mighty according to the power of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering with joy.

¹² Giving thanks to the Father who did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the light,

¹³ who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love,

¹⁴ in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of the sins,