Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Chapter 11

David’s Son. ¹ With the onset of spring, the time of year when kings go off to war, David sent forth Joab along with his officers and the entire Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. However, David himself remained in Jerusalem. ² One evening, when David arose from his couch and walked about on the roof of his palace, he saw from the roof a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. ³ David made inquiries about the woman, and he was told: “That is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴ David sent messengers to fetch her, and when she came to him, he had relations with her, just after she had purified herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned home. ⁵ The woman conceived, and she sent a message to David: “I am pregnant.”

⁶ Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite,” and Joab did so. ⁷ When Uriah returned, David asked him how Joab and the troops were faring and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah: “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” Uriah departed from the king’s palace, and a gift from the king was sent to his house.

⁹ However, Uriah did not return to his house, but rather he slept at the palace gate with all the king’s bodyguard. ¹⁰ Upon receiving the report that Uriah had not returned home, David said to him: “You have just arrived from a journey. Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

¹¹ Uriah replied: “The Ark and Israel and Judah are lodged in tents, and my master Joab and your majesty’s soldiers are encamped in the open fields. How then can I feel comfortable to go to my house, to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I shall do no such thing.”

¹² Then David said to Uriah: “Remain here for one more day. Tomorrow I will send you back.” Therefore, Uriah remained that day in Jerusalem. ¹³ On the following day David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him and caused him to become drunk. In the evening he went outside to lie down and fall asleep with the king’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it to him in the care of Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote: “Assign Uriah up front where the fighting is fierce, and then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and die.”

Psalm 14^[a]

Corruption and Punishment of the Godless

¹ For the director.^[b] Of David.

¹⁴ Prayer for a Deeper Faith. This is the reason why I kneel in prayer before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶ I ask that from the riches of his glory he may grant through his Spirit that you be strengthened with power in your inner being ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that, rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints its breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and know Christ’s love even though it is beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Bread of Life^[a]

Chapter 6

Signs of Salvation

Jesus Feeds the Crowds.^{[b] 1} After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias, ² and a large crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he performed on the sick. ³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish feast of Passover was approaching.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for them to eat?” ⁶ He said this to test him, because Jesus himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages^[c] would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a small piece.” ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what help will they be among so many?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was plenty of grass in that place, so the men sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² When they all had eaten enough, he said to the disciples, “Gather up the fragments that are left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign he had performed, they began to say, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Then Jesus realized that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, so he again withdrew to the mountain by himself.

¹⁶ Jesus Walks on the Water.^[d] When evening came, the disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷ got into a boat, and set out across the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. ¹⁸ The sea then became rough because a strong wind had started to blow.

¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰ But he said to them, “It is I.^[e] Do not be afraid!” ²¹ They were ready to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately reached the shore toward which they were heading.