Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

18 I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.

² The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

³ I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

⁴ The sorrows of death encompassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

⁵ The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death lay before me.

⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even unto His ears.

⁴³ Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and Thou hast made me the head of the heathen; a people whom I have not known shall serve me.

⁴⁴ As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me; the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.

⁴⁵ The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.

⁴⁶ The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock! And let the God of my salvation be exalted!

⁴⁷ It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me;

⁴⁸ He delivereth me from mine enemies. Yea, Thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me; Thou hast delivered me from violent men.

⁴⁹ Therefore will I give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto Thy name.

⁵⁰ Great deliverance giveth He to His king and showeth mercy to His anointed, to David and to his seed for evermore.

31 Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

² And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul’s sons.

³ And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded by the archers.

⁴ Then said Saul unto his armorbearer, “Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me.” But his armorbearer would not, for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.

⁵ And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him.

⁶ So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armorbearer, and all his men that same day together.

⁷ And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were on the other side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

⁸ And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹ And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about to proclaim it in the house of their idols and among the people.

¹⁰ And they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.

¹¹ And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹² all the valiant men arose and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh and burned them there.

¹³ And they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

9 Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you.

² For I know the forwardness of your thinking, for which I boast of you to those of Macedonia that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath called forth very many.

³ Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you on this account should be in vain, that, as I said, ye may be ready;

⁴ lest it might happen, if those of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, that we (that we say not “ye”) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

⁵ Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go ahead unto you and make up your bounty beforehand (whereof ye had notice beforehand), that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.