Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
59 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God; defend me from them that rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.
3 For lo, they lie in wait for my soul; the mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.
4 They run and prepare themselves though I am not at fault. Awake to help me, and behold!
5 Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen; be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah
6 They return at evening; they make a noise like a dog and go round about the city.
7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips; “For who,” say they, “doth hear?”
8 But Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt hold all the heathen in derision.
9 Because of his strength, I will wait upon Thee; for God is my defense.
10 The God of my mercy shall go before me; God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
11 Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by Thy power and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride, and for the cursing and lying which they speak.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be; and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah
14 And at evening let them return, and let them make a noise like a dog and go round about the city.
15 Let them wander up and down for meat, and grumble if they be not satisfied.
16 But I will sing of Thy power, yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning; for Thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.
17 Unto Thee, O my Strength, will I sing; for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy.
14 So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had kept Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria.
15 But King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, “If it be your minds, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel.”
16 So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
17 And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.” And Joram said, “Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”
18 So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, “Thus saith the king: ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu said, “What hast thou to do with peace? Turn thee in behind me.” And the watchman told, saying, “The messenger came to them, but he cometh not back.”
19 Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them and said, “Thus saith the king: ‘Is it peace?’” And Jehu answered, “What hast thou to do with peace? Turn thee in behind me.”
20 And the watchman told, saying, “He came even unto them and cometh not back; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously.”
21 And Joram said, “Make ready.” And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; and they went out against Jehu and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22 And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” And he answered, “What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”
23 And Joram turned his hands and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “There is treachery, O Ahaziah!”
24 And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and smote Joram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
25 Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, “Take him up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him:
26 ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord, and I will requite thee in this plot, saith the Lord.’ Now therefore take and cast him into the plot of ground, according to the word of the Lord.”
11 Therefore, remember that ye, being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by those who are called the Circumcision in the flesh so made by hands—
12 remember that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus, ye who once were far off have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that He might make in Himself one new man out of the two, so making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were nigh;
18 for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore, ye are strangers and foreigners no more, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
20 Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in Whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.