Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

138 I will praise Thee with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee.

² I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and for Thy truth, for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name.

³ In the day when I cried, Thou answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of Thy mouth.

⁵ Yea, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

⁶ Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proud He knoweth afar off.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me; Thou shalt stretch forth Thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and Thy right hand shall save me.

⁸ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me; Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the works of Thine own hands.

5 And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

² When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.

³ And when those of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon and set him in his place again.

⁴ And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon had fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

⁵ Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

⁶ But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon those of Ashdod, and He destroyed them and smote them with hemorrhoids, even Ashdod and the borders thereof.

⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our god.”

⁸ They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath.” And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.

⁹ And it was so that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had hemorrhoids in their secret parts.

¹⁰ Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us to slay us and our people.”

¹¹ So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people.” For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

¹² And the men who died not were smitten with the hemorrhoids; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tabernacle, were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed about with our house which is from Heaven,

³ that, being so clothed, we shall not be found naked.

⁴ For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not because we would be unclothed, but clothed about, that mortality might be swallowed up by life.

⁵ Now He that hath wrought us for this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the pledge of the Spirit.