Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

18 To victory, the word of the Lord to David; which spake the words of this song, in the day in which the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul; and he said: Lord, my strength, I shall love thee; (To victory, the word of the Lord to David; who spoke the words of this song, on the day in which the Lord rescued him from the power of all his enemies, and from the power of Saul; and he said, O Lord, my strength, I shall love thee;)^[a]

² the Lord is my steadfastness, and my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is mine helper; and I shall hope in him. My defender, and the horn of mine health; and mine up-taker (My God is my helper; and I shall trust him. My defender, and the horn of my salvation, or of my deliverance; and my rescuer).

³ I shall praise, and inwardly call the Lord; and I shall be safe from mine enemies. (I shall praise him, and I shall call on the Lord; and I shall be saved from my enemies.)

⁴ The sorrows of death (en)compassed me; and the strands of wickedness have troubled me. (The sorrows of death surrounded me; and the streams of wickedness have flowed over me.)

⁵ The sorrows of hell (en)compassed me; the snares of death before-occupied me. (The sorrows of Sheol, or of the land of the dead, surrounded me./The sorrows of the grave surrounded me; the snares of death were set for me.)

⁶ In my tribulation I inwardly called the Lord; and I cried to my God. And he heard my voice from his holy temple; and my cry in his sight entered into his ears. (In my trouble I called to the Lord; yea, I cried to my God. And he heard my voice in his holy Temple; yea, my cry came before him, and entered into his ears.)

⁴³ Thou shalt deliver me from [the] against-sayings of the people; thou shalt set me into the head of folks. The people, which I knew not, hath served me; (Thou delivered me from the gainsaying of the people; thou put me as the head of the nations. The people, whom I knew not, now serve me.)

⁴⁴ in the hearing of ear it obeyed to me. Alien sons lied (down) to me, (The sons of foreigners, or of strangers, now bow down to me; and after hearing me speak, they obey me.)

⁴⁵ alien sons waxed eld; and (went) crooked from thy paths. (The courage of the sons of foreigners, or of strangers, faded away; and they slunk out of their strongholds together.)

⁴⁶ The Lord liveth, and my God be blessed; and the God of mine health be enhanced. (The Lord liveth, and blessed is my God; let the God of my salvation be exalted!)

⁴⁷ God, that givest vengeances to me, and makest subject peoples under me; (O God, who givest vengeance to me, and makest the nations subject under me;)

⁴⁸ thou art my deliverer from my wrathful enemies. And thou shalt enhance me from them, that rise against me; thou shalt deliver me from a wicked man. (thou art my deliverer from all my enemies. And thou hast raised me up over those who rose up against me; thou hast rescued me from violent men.)

⁴⁹ Therefore, Lord, I shall acknowledge to thee among nations; and I shall say psalm to thy name. (And so, Lord, I shall praise thee before the nations; and I shall sing to thy name.)

⁵⁰ Magnifying the healths of his king; and doing mercy to his christ David, and to his seed till into the world. (He who giveth victories to his king; who showeth love to his anointed king, yea, to David, and to his children, or his descendants, forever.)

31 Forsooth the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the face of Philistines, and they fell down slain in the hill of Gilboa. (Then the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines, and they fell down dead on Mount Gilboa.)

² And the Philistines hurled fiercely into Saul, and into his sons, and they killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, [the] sons of Saul.

³ And (then) all the weight, or charge, of the battle was turned against Saul; and (the) men archers pursued him, and he was wounded greatly of the archers (and he was seriously wounded by the archers).

⁴ And Saul said to his squire, Draw out thy sword, and slay me, lest peradventure these uncircumcised men come, and slay me, and scorn me. And his squire would not, for he was afeared by full great dread; therefore Saul took his sword, and felled thereon (But his squire would not do it, for he was afraid with a very great fear; and so Saul took his own sword, and fell on it).

⁵ And when his squire had seen this, that Saul was dead, also he felled upon his sword (he also fell on his sword), and was dead with him.

⁶ And so Saul was dead, and his three sons, and his squire, and all his men in that day together. (And so Saul, and his three sons, and his squire, and all his men, died together on the same day.)

⁷ And the sons of Israel, that were beyond the valley, and beyond Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul was dead, and his sons, and they left their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came, and dwelled there. (And when the Israelites, who were beyond the valley, and east of the Jordan River, saw that the other Israelites had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they left their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came, and lived there.)

⁸ Forsooth in the tother day made, Philistines came, that they should despoil the slain men, and they found Saul, and his three sons, lying in the hill of Gilboa; (And the next day, the Philistines came to rob the dead men, and they found Saul, and his three sons, lying there dead on Mount Gilboa;)

⁹ and they cutted away the head of Saul, and despoiled him of his armours; and sent into the land of Philistines by compass, that it should be told in the temple of idols, and in the peoples. (and they cut off Saul’s head, and stripped him of his armour/and robbed him of his arms, or of his weapons; and then they sent messengers into all the land of the Philistines, so that it could be told to their idols, and to their people alike.)

¹⁰ And they putted his armours in the temple of Ashtaroth; but they hanged his body in the wall of Bethshan. (And they put his armour in the temple of Ashtoreth/And they put his arms, or his weapons, in the temple of Astarte, but they hung up his body on the wall of Bethshan.)

¹¹ And when the dwellers of Jabesh of Gilead had heard this, and whatever things the Philistines had done to Saul, (And when the inhabitants of Jabesh of Gilead had heard this, and all the things that the Philistines had done to Saul,)

¹² and all the strongest men rose (up), and went forth all that night, and they took (down) the dead body of Saul, and the dead bodies of his sons, from the wall of Bethshan; and the men of Jabesh of Gilead came, and burnt those dead bodies with fire.

¹³ And they took the bones of them, and buried them in the wood of Jabesh, and fasted by seven days. (And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and then fasted for seven days.)

9 For of the ministry that is made to holy men, it is to me of plenty to write to you.

² For I know your [ready] will, for the which I have glory of you with Macedonians, for also Achaia is ready from a year passed, and your love hath stirred full many.

³ And we have sent brethren, that this thing that we glory of you, be not voided in this part, that as I said, ye be ready.

⁴ Lest when Macedonians come with me, and find you unready, we be shamed, that we say you not/that we saw you not, in this substance.

⁵ Therefore I guessed necessary to pray brethren, that they come before to you, and make ready this promised blessing to be ready, so as blessing, and not as avarice.