Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 6

A Prayer for Mercy

For the choir director: with stringed instruments, according to Sheminith.^(A) A psalm of David.

¹⁵ Then Naaman and his whole company went back to the man of God, stood before him, and declared, “I know there’s no God in the whole world except in Israel.^(A) Therefore, please accept a gift^(B) from your servant.”

¹⁶ But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives,^(C) in whose presence I stand, I will not accept it.”^(D) Naaman urged him to accept it, but he refused.

¹⁷ Naaman responded, “If not, please let your servant be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry,^(E) for your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other god but the Lord.^{(F) 18} However, in a particular matter may the Lord pardon your servant: When my master, the king of Aram, goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow in worship while he is leaning on my arm,^[a](G) and I have to bow in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow^[b] in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”

¹⁹ So he said to him, “Go in peace.”^(H)

Gehazi’s Greed Punished

After Naaman had traveled a short distance from Elisha,

The Riot in Ephesus

²¹ After these events, Paul resolved by the Spirit^[a] to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem. “After I’ve been there,” he said, “It is necessary for me to see Rome as well.”^{(A) 22} After sending to Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus,^(B) he himself stayed in Asia for a while.^(C)

²³ About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way.^{(D) 24} For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. ²⁵ When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business. ²⁶ You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods.^{(E) 27} Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”