Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 50

A Psalm of ^[a]Asaph.

¹ The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

³ Our God comes and does not keep silence; a fire devours before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest rages.

⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people:

⁵ Gather together to Me My saints [those who have found grace in My sight], those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.

⁶ And the heavens declare His righteousness (rightness and justice), for God, He is judge. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

14 Then Abijah [the little] son of Jeroboam became sick.

² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray you, and disguise yourself, that you may not be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I should be king over this people.

³ Take ten loaves, some cakes, and a bottle of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what shall happen to the child.

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went [twenty miles] to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.

⁵ And the Lord said to Ahijah, Behold, the ^[a]wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her. When she came, she pretended to be another woman.

⁶ But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy news for you.

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel

⁸ And rent the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes,

⁹ But have done evil above all who were before you; for you have made yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke Me to anger and have cast Me behind your back—

¹⁰ Therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from [him] every male, both bond and free, in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away dung, till it is all gone.

¹¹ Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and any who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat. For the Lord has spoken it.

¹² Arise therefore [Ano, Jeroboam’s wife], get to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die.

¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam’s family shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good and pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴ Moreover, the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam this day. From now on

¹⁵ The Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will root up Israel out of this good land which He gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River, because they have made their Asherim [idolatrous symbols of the goddess Asherah], provoking the Lord to anger.

¹⁶ He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam which he has sinned and made Israel to sin.

¹⁷ So Jeroboam’s wife departed and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

¹⁸ And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord spoken by His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹² I give thanks to Him Who has granted me [the needed] strength and made me able [for this], Christ Jesus our Lord, because He has judged and counted me faithful and trustworthy, appointing me to [this stewardship of] the ministry.

¹³ Though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and was shamefully and outrageously and aggressively insulting [to Him], nevertheless, I obtained mercy because I had acted out of ignorance in unbelief.

¹⁴ And the grace (unmerited favor and blessing) of our Lord [actually] flowed out superabundantly and beyond measure for me, accompanied by faith and love that are [to be realized] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ The saying is sure and true and worthy of full and universal acceptance, that Christ Jesus (the Messiah) came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.

¹⁶ But I obtained mercy for the reason that in me, as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might show forth and display all His perfect long-suffering and patience for an example to [encourage] those who would thereafter believe on Him for [the gaining of] eternal life.

¹⁷ Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible and immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever (to the ages of ages). Amen (so be it).

¹⁸ This charge and admonition I commit in trust to you, Timothy, my son, ^[a]in accordance with prophetic intimations which I formerly received concerning you, so that inspired and aided by them you may wage the good warfare,

¹⁹ Holding fast to faith (^[b]that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) conscience. By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith.

²⁰ Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan in order that they may be disciplined [by punishment and learn] not to blaspheme.