Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 130

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.

² Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

³ If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?^(A)

⁴ But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.^(B)

⁵ I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope.

⁶ I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is mercy and loving-kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption.

⁸ And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said to Jonathan, What have I done? Of what am I guilty? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?

² Jonathan said, God forbid! You shall not die. My father does nothing great or small but what he tells me. And why should [he] hide this thing from me? It is not so.

³ But David replied, Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.

⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, Whatever you desire, I will do for you.

⁵ David said to Jonathan, Tomorrow is the New Moon [festival], and I should not fail to sit at the table with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening.

⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

⁷ If he says, All right, then it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then be sure that evil is determined by him.

⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought [me] into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?

⁹ And Jonathan said, Far be it from you! If I knew that evil was determined for you by my father, would I not tell you?

¹⁰ Then said David to Jonathan, Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?

¹¹ Jonathan said, Come, let us go into the field. So they went into the field.

¹² Jonathan said to David, The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well inclined toward David, and I do not send and let you know it,

¹³ The Lord do so, and much more, to Jonathan. But if it please my father to do you harm, then I will disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.

¹⁴ While I am still alive you shall not only show me the loving-kindness of the Lord, so that I die not,

¹⁵ But also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever—no, not even when the Lord has cut off every enemy of David from the face of the earth.

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, And the Lord will require that this covenant be kept at the hands of David’s enemies.

¹⁷ And Jonathan caused David to swear again by his love for him, for Jonathan loved him as he loved his own life.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the New Moon festival; and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.

¹⁹ On the third day you will go quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain by the stone Ezel.

²⁰ And I will shoot three arrows on the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.

²¹ And I will send a lad, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I expressly say to the lad, Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them—then you are to come, for it is safe for you and there is no danger, as the Lord lives.

²² But if I say to the youth, Look, the arrows are beyond you—then go, for the Lord has sent you away.

²³ And as touching the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field, and when the New Moon [festival] came, the king sat down to eat food.

²⁵ The king sat, as at other times, on his seat by the wall, and Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

8 We want to tell you further, brethren, about the grace (the favor and spiritual blessing) of God which has been evident in the churches of Macedonia [arousing in them the desire to give alms];

² For in the midst of an ordeal of severe tribulation, their abundance of joy and their depth of poverty [together] have overflowed in wealth of lavish generosity on their part.

³ For, as I can bear witness, [they gave] according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability; and [they did it] voluntarily,

⁴ Begging us most insistently for the favor and the fellowship of contributing in this ministration for [the relief and support of] the saints [in Jerusalem].

⁵ Nor [was this gift of theirs merely the contribution] that we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us [as His agents] by the will of God [^[a]entirely disregarding their personal interests, they gave as much as they possibly could, having put themselves at our disposal to be directed by the will of God]—

⁶ So much so that we have urged Titus that as he began it, he should also complete this beneficent and gracious contribution among you [the church at Corinth].

⁷ Now as you abound and excel and are at the front in everything—in faith, in expressing yourselves, in knowledge, in all zeal, and in your love for us—[see to it that you come to the front now and] abound and excel in this gracious work [of almsgiving] also.