Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
56 Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he, fighting daily, oppresseth me.
2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O Thou Most High.
3 In the time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.
4 In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
5 Every day they wrest my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps as they lie in wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In Thine anger cast down the people, O God.
8 Thou countest my wanderings; put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?
9 When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back! This I know, for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise His word; in the Lord will I praise His word.
11 In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto Thee.
13 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death; wilt Thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
5 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man before his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, “Would to God my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.”
4 And one went in and told his lord, saying, “Thus and thus said the maid who is from the land of Israel.”
5 And the king of Syria said, “Go now, go; and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.” And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “Now when this letter has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest cure him of his leprosy.”
7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to cure a man of his leprosy? Therefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.”
8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean.”
11 But Naaman was wroth and went away, and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and cure the leper.’
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near, and spoke unto him and said, “My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
14 Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
13 Therefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say “Amen” at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.
18 I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than ye all.
19 Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
20 Brethren, be not children in understanding. Nonetheless, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
21 In the law it is written: “With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that they will not hear Me,” saith the Lord.
22 Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who believe not; but prophesying serveth not those who believe not, but those who believe.
23 If therefore the whole church come together into one place and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not or is unlearned, he is convinced by all and is judged by all,
25 and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you in truth.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.