Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Calls Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no vision coming forth.

² At that time, Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak that he could not see), ³ and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was.

⁴ Then the Lord called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called to me.”

And he said, “I did not call. Return, lie down again.” And he went and lay down.

⁶ The Lord called Samuel again. So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

And he answered, “I did not call, my son. Return, lie down again.”

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him.

⁸ The Lord again called Samuel a third time. So he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling to the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down. And it will be, if He calls you, that you will say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant listens.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and stood, and He called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant listens.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am doing something in Israel which will make both ears ring of every one that hears it. ¹² In that day I will bring about against Eli everything which I have spoken with regard to his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For I told him that I will judge his house forever, for the guilt which he knew, because his sons are cursed, and he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for with sacrifice nor offering forever.”

¹⁵ Samuel lay until the morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Now Samuel feared to report the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel, and said, “Samuel, my son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

¹⁷ He said, “What is the thing that the Lord has spoken to you? Do not hide it from me. Thus may God do so to you, and more also, if you hide from me a word out of all the things that He spoke to you.” ¹⁸ Samuel told him everything, and did not hide from him a thing. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes.”

¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and did not let any of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was proven to be a prophet of the Lord.

Psalm 139

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.

⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power being from God and not from ourselves. ⁸ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ and always carrying around in the body the death of the Lord Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be expressed in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that also the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then, death works in us, but life in you.

The Question About the Sabbath^(A)

²³ He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. As they went, His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing on the Sabbath what is not lawful?”

²⁵ He said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he and those who were with him were in need and hungry: ²⁶ how he went into the house of God, in the days Abiathar was the high priest, and ate the ritual bread, which is lawful only for the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

²⁷ Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Man With a Withered Hand^(B)

3 Again, He entered the synagogue, and there was a man who had a withered hand. ² They watched Him to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up.”

⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.

⁵ When He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch your hand forward.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. ⁶ Then the Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how to kill Him.