Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. ² In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. Yahweh said to you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be prince over Israel.’” ³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; 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-three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶ The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “The blind and the lame will keep you out of here,” thinking, “David can’t come in here.” ⁷ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city. ⁸ David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him go up to the watercourse and strike those lame and blind, who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame can’t come into the house.”

⁹ David lived in the stronghold, and called it David’s city. David built around from Millo and inward. ¹⁰ David grew greater and greater, for Yahweh, the God of Armies, was with him.

¹⁶ I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷ That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸ Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. ¹⁹ For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. ²⁰ For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face. ²¹ To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring^[a] of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. ²⁴ Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. ²⁶ I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; ²⁷ in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

²⁸ Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie. ³² In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me. ³³ I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.