Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Folly and Wickedness of Men.
For the choir director; according to [a]Mahalath. A [b]Maskil of David.
53 (A)The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”
They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
(B)There is no one who does good.
2 God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is (C)anyone who [c]understands,
Who (D)seeks after God.
3 (E)Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
4 Have the workers of wickedness (F)no knowledge,
Who eat up My people as though they ate bread
And have not called upon God?
5 There they were in great [d]fear (G)where no [e]fear had been;
For God (H)scattered the bones of [f]him who encamped against you;
You (I)put them to shame, because (J)God had rejected them.
6 Oh, that (K)the salvation of Israel [g]would come out of Zion!
When God [h]restores His captive people,
[i]Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
Samuel Rebukes Saul
10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “(A)I regret that I have made Saul king, for (B)he has turned back from [a]following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and (C)cried out to the Lord all night. 12 Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul; and it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to (D)Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on [b]down to (E)Gilgal.” 13 Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “(F)Blessed are you of the Lord! I have carried out the command of the Lord.” 14 But Samuel said, “(G)What then is this [c]bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the [d]lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for (H)the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak!”
17 Samuel said, “Is it not true, (I)though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, 18 and the Lord sent you on a [e]mission, and said, ‘(J)Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, (K)but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “(L)I did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the [f]mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But (M)the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 22 Samuel said,
“(N)Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, (O)to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 “For rebellion is as the sin of (P)divination,
And insubordination is as (Q)iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
(R)He has also rejected you from being king.”
22 I saw (A)no [a]temple in it, for the (B)Lord God the Almighty and the (C)Lamb are its [b]temple. 23 And the city (D)has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for (E)the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the (F)Lamb. 24 (G)The nations will walk by its light, and the (H)kings of the earth [c]will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for (I)there will be no night there) (J)its gates (K)will never be closed; 26 and (L)they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and (M)nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those [d]whose names are (N)written in the Lamb’s book of life.
The River and the Tree of Life
22 Then (O)he showed me a (P)river of the (Q)water of life, [e]clear (R)as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of [f]the Lamb, 2 in the middle of (S)its street. (T)On either side of the river was (U)the tree of life, bearing twelve [g]kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 (V)There will no longer be any curse; and (W)the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will (X)serve Him; 4 they will (Y)see His face, and His (Z)name will be on their (AA)foreheads. 5 And (AB)there will no longer be any night; and they [h]will not have need (AC)of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will (AD)reign forever and ever.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.