Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
21 The king shall rejoice in Thy strength, O Lord; and in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For Thou goest before him with the blessings of goodness; Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of Thee and Thou gavest it to him, even length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in Thy salvation; honor and majesty hast Thou laid upon him.
6 For Thou hast made him most blessed for ever; Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy countenance.
7 For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies; Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee.
9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger; the Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
10 Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against Thee; they contrived a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shalt Thou make them turn their back when Thou shalt ready Thine arrows upon Thy strings against the face of them.
13 Be Thou exalted, Lord, in Thine own strength; so will we sing and praise Thy power!
5 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel; and the Lord said to thee, ‘Thou shalt feed My people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.’”
3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke unto David, saying, “Unless thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither,” thinking, “David cannot come in hither.”
7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (the same is the City of David).
8 And David said on that day, “Whosoever getteth up through the gutter and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, who are hated in David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain.” Therefore they said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
9 So David dwelt in the fortress, and called it the City of David. And David built round about from the Millo and inward.
10 And David went on and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him.
16 I say again, let no man think me a fool. But if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast of myself a little.
17 (That which I now speak, I speak it not from the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence as boasting.
18 Since many glory in the flesh, I will glory also.)
19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise!
20 For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, or if a man devour you, if a man take from you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
21 I speak as reproached, as though we had been weak. However it be, whereinsoever anyone is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more — in labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.
24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day adrift in the deep;
26 in journeyings often, in perils from waters, in perils from robbers, in perils from mine own countrymen, in perils from the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 in weariness and painfulness, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things which are external, there is that which cometh upon me daily: the care for all the churches!
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?
30 If I must glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
32 In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me;
33 but I was let down by the wall in a basket through a window, and escaped his hands.
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