Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

19 Unto the end. A psalm for David.

² May the Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation: may the name of the God of Jacob protect thee.

³ May he send thee help from the sanctuary: and defend thee out of Sion.

⁴ May he be mindful of all thy sacrifices: and may thy whole burnt offering be made fat.

⁵ May he give thee according to thy own heart; and confirm all thy counsels.

⁶ We will rejoice in thy salvation; and in the name of our God we shall be exalted.

⁷ The Lord fulfill all thy petitions: now have I known that the Lord hath saved his anointed. He will hear him from his holy heaven: the salvation of his right hand is in powers.

⁸ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.

⁹ They are bound, and have fallen; but we are risen, and are set upright. O Lord, save the king: and hear us in the day that we shall call upon thee.

2 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king: that wine was before him, and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king: and I was as one languishing away before his face.

² And the king said to me: Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou dost not appear to be sick? this is not without cause, but some evil, I know not what, is in thy heart. And I was seized with an exceeding great fear:

³ And I said to the king: O king, live for ever: why should not my countenance be sorrowful, seeing the city of the place of the sepulchres of my fathers is desolate, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire?

⁴ Then the king said to me: For what dost thou make request? And I prayed to the God of heaven,

⁵ And I said to the king: If it seem good to the king, and if thy servant hath found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me into Judea to the city of the sepulchre of my father, and I will build it.

⁶ And the king said to me, and the queen that sat by him: For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? And it pleased the king, and he sent me: and I fixed him a time.

⁷ And I said to the king: If it seem good to the king, let him give me letters to the governors of the country beyond the river, that they convey me over, till I come into Judea:

⁸ And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, to give me timber that I may cover the gates of the tower of the house, and the walls of the city, and the house that I shall enter into. And the king gave me according to the good hand of my God with me.

⁹ And I came to the governors of the country beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. And the king had sent with me captains of soldiers, and horsemen.

¹⁰ And Sanaballat the Horonite, and Tobias the servant, the Ammonite, heard it, and it grieved them exceedingly, that a man was come, who sought the prosperity of the children of Israel.

12 I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service.

² And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.

³ For I say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided to every one the measure of faith.

⁴ For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office:

⁵ So we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

⁶ And having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us, either prophecy, to be used according to the rule of faith;

⁷ Or ministry, in ministering; or he that teacheth, in doctrine;

⁸ He that exhorteth, in exhorting; he that giveth, with simplicity; he that ruleth, with carefulness; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.