Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm to Asaph.

¹ ¶ The God of gods, even the LORD, has spoken and convocated the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined forth.

³ Our God shall come and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

⁴ He shall convocate the heavens of above, and the earth, that he may judge his people.

⁵ Gather my merciful ones together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

⁶ And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is the judge. Selah.

²⁶ ¶ Likewise Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s slave, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow woman, lifted up his hand against the king.

²⁷ And this was why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon in building Millo, closed the breach of the city of David, his father.

²⁸ And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour, and Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.

²⁹ And it came to pass at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, found him in the way; and he was covered with a new garment; and the two were alone in the field.

³⁰ And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and rent it in twelve pieces;

³¹ and he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for thyself, for thus hath said the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to thee;

³² and he shall have one tribe for my slave David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel

³³ because they have forsaken me and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Milcom, the god of the sons of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes and to keep my statutes and my rights, as did David his father.

³⁴ But I will not take any of his kingdom out of his hand, for I will make him prince all the days of his life for David, my slave’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:

³⁵ But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes.

³⁶ And unto his son I will give one tribe, that David my slave may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name in her.

³⁷ And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desires and shalt be king over Israel.

³⁸ And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee and wilt walk in my ways and do that which is right in my sight, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David, my slave, did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.

³⁹ And I will afflict the seed of David because of this, but not for ever.

⁴⁰ Solomon sought, therefore, to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt unto Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

¹² ¶ Having come to Troas for the gospel of the Christ, even though a door was opened unto me in the Lord,

¹³ I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from there into Macedonia.

¹⁴ Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in the Christ and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

¹⁵ For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in those that are saved and in those that perish;

¹⁶ to the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷ For we are not as many, false merchandisers of the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.