Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

108 The song of the psalm of David. Mine heart is ready, God, mine heart is ready; I shall sing, and I shall say psalm in my glory. (God, my heart is ready, my heart is ready; I shall sing, yea, I shall sing a song.)^[a]

² My glory, rise thou up, psaltery and harp, rise thou up; I shall rise up early. (My spirit, rise thou up; lute and harp, rise thou up; yea, I shall rise up in the morning.)

³ Lord, I shall acknowledge to thee among peoples; and I shall say psalm to thee among nations. (Lord, I shall praise thee/I shall confess thee/I shall give thanks to thee among the peoples; and I shall sing a song to thee among the nations, or among the heathen.)

⁴ For why, God, thy mercy is great on heavens; and thy truth is till to the clouds. (For, O God, thy love reacheth above the heavens; and thy faithfulness up to the clouds.)

⁵ God, be thou enhanced above heavens; and thy glory over all earth. (God, be thou exalted above the heavens; and let thy glory be over all the earth.)

⁶ That thy darlings be delivered, make thou safe with thy right hand, and hear [thou] me; (Save thy dear ones; yea, save thou us with thy right hand, and answer thou me.)^[b]

⁷ God spake in his holy (place). I shall make full out joy, and I shall part Shechem; and I shall mete the great valley of tabernacles. (God spoke in his holiness/God spoke from his sanctuary, and he said, I shall rejoice, and I shall divide Shechem; and I shall measure out the Succoth Valley.)

⁸ Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the up-taking of mine head. Judah is my king; (Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, and Judah is my sceptre.)

⁹ Moab is the cauldron of mine hope. Into Idumea I shall stretch forth my shoe; aliens be made friends to me. (But Moab is my washbowl. And I shall throw my shoes at Edom; and Philistia shall be made subject to me.)

¹⁰ Who shall lead me forth into a strong city; who shall lead me forth till into Idumea? (Who shall lead me forth into the fortified city? who shall lead me unto Edom?)

¹¹ Whether not thou, God, that hast put us away; and, God, shalt thou not go out in our virtues? (Shalt not thou, God, even though thou hast cast us off, or rejected us? or shalt not thou, God, go out with our hosts, or our armies, any more?)

¹² Give thou help to us (out) of tribulation; for the help of man is vain. (Lord, give thou us help in the time of trouble; for the help of man is worthless, yea, but an empty hope.)

¹³ We shall make virtue in God; and he shall bring our enemies to nought. (With God’s help, we shall do valiantly/we shall have the victory; and he shall bring down our enemies into nothing.)

³ And Samuel spake to all the house of Israel, and said, If in all your heart ye turn again to the Lord, do ye away alien gods (do ye away foreign, or other, gods), (the) Baalim, and (the) Ashtaroth, from the midst of you; and make ye ready your hearts to the Lord, and serve ye him alone; and (then) he shall deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

⁴ Therefore the sons of Israel did away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord alone. (And so the Israelites did away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and served the Lord alone.)

⁵ And Samuel said, Gather ye all Israel into Mizpah, that I pray the Lord for you (and I shall pray to the Lord for you).

⁶ And they came together into Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out in the Lord’s sight; and they fasted in that day, and said, Lord, we have sinned to thee (and said, Lord, we have sinned against thee). And Samuel deemed the sons of Israel in Mizpeh.

⁷ And the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel were gathered together in Mizpeh; and the princes of Philistines went up to Israel. And when the sons of Israel had heard this, they dreaded of the face of (the) Philistines. (And the Philistines heard that the Israelites were gathered together in Mizpeh; and the princes of the Philistines came up against Israel. And when the Israelites had heard this, they feared to face the Philistines.)

⁸ And they said to Samuel/And Israel cried to Samuel, Cease thou not to cry for us to our Lord God, that he save us from the hand of Philistines. (And the Israelites cried to Samuel, Cease thou not to cry out to the Lord our God for us, so that he will save us from the hands of the Philistines.)

⁹ And Samuel took one sucking lamb, and offered it whole into burnt sacrifice to the Lord (And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it whole for a burnt sacrifice to the Lord). And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him.

¹⁰ And it was done, when Samuel offered the burnt sacrifice, that the Philistines began (to do) battle against Israel. And the Lord thundered with great thunder in that day upon the Philistines, and made them afeared; and they were slain of the sons of Israel (and they fled in panic before the Israelites).

¹¹ And the sons of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them unto the place that was under Bethcar.

¹² And Samuel took one stone, and put it betwixt Mizpeh, and Shen; and he called the name of that place The stone of help (and he called the name of that place Ebenezer). And he said, Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.

¹³ And the Philistines were made low, and they added no more to come into the terms of Israel (And so the Philistines were humbled, and they did not come any more into the land of Israel). And so the hand of the Lord was made [up]on (the) Philistines in all the days of Samuel.

¹⁴ And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel, were yielded again to Israel, from Ekron unto Gath, and the coasts of Gath; and the Lord delivered Israel from the hand of (the) Philistines; and peace was betwixt Israel and Amorites (and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites).

¹⁵ And Samuel deemed Israel all the days of his life, that is, till to the ordaining and confirming of Saul;

20 And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of deepness, and a great chain in his hand.

² And he caught the dragon, the old serpent, that is the Devil and Satan; and he bound him by a thousand years.

³ And he sent him into deepness, and closed, and marked on him, that he deceive no more the folks, till a thousand years be filled [And he sent him into deepness, and closed, and signed, or sealed, upon him, that he deceive no more folks, till a thousand years be fulfilled]. After these things it behooveth him to be unbound a little time.

⁴ And I saw seats, and they sat on them, and doom was given to them. And the souls of men beheaded for the witnessing of Jesus, and for the word of God, and them that worshipped not the beast, neither the image of it, neither took the character of it in their foreheads, neither in their hands [or in their hands]. And they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

⁵ And others of dead men lived not [The others of dead lived not], till a thousand years were ended. This is the first again-rising.

⁶ Blessed and holy is he, that hath part in the first again-rising. In these men the second death hath not power [In these the second death hath no power]; but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.