Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

[A Psalm] of David.

138 I will give thee thanks with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing psalms of thee.

² I will bow down toward the temple of thy holiness, and celebrate thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

³ In the day when I called thou answeredst me; thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall celebrate thee, Jehovah, when they have heard the words of thy mouth;

⁵ And they shall sing in the ways of Jehovah, for great is the glory of Jehovah.

⁶ For Jehovah is high; but he looketh upon the lowly, and the proud he knoweth afar off.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou wilt stretch forth thy hand against the anger of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

⁸ Jehovah will perfect what concerneth me: thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, [endureth] for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.

5 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.

² And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

³ And when they of Ashdod arose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

⁴ And when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the fish-stump was left to him.

⁵ Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

⁶ And the hand of Jehovah was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he laid them waste, and smote them with hemorrhoids,—Ashdod and its borders.

⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for his hand is severe upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

⁸ And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they said, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].

⁹ And it came to pass that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with very great panic; and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and hemorrhoids broke out upon them.

¹⁰ And they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, when the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.

¹¹ And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it kill us not, and our people. For there was deadly alarm throughout the city: the hand of God was very heavy there;

¹² and the men that died not were smitten with the hemorrhoids; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

5 For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

² For indeed in this we groan, ardently desiring to have put on our house which [is] from heaven;

³ if indeed being also clothed we shall not be found naked.

⁴ For indeed we who are in the tabernacle groan, being burdened; while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that [what is] mortal may be swallowed up by life.

⁵ Now he that has wrought us for this very thing [is] God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit.