Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Adonai lives! Blessed Be My Rock
Psalm 18
1 For the music director: a psalm of David the servant of Adonai. He chanted the words of this song to Adonai on the day Adonai delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
2 He said, I love You, Adonai my strength!
3 Adonai is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.
My God is my rock, in Him I take refuge,
my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold.
4 I called upon Adonai, worthy of praise,
and I was rescued from my enemies.
5 Cords of death entangled me.
Torrents of Belial overwhelmed me.
6 Cords of Sheol coiled around me.
Snares of death came before me.
43 Then I beat them as fine as dust before the wind.
I pour them out like mud in the streets.
44 You free me from strifes of the people.
You set me as head of the nations—
people I did not know are serving me.
45 As soon as they hear, they obey me.
Children of foreigners cringe before me.
46 Children of foreigners lose heart
and come trembling from their hideouts.
47 Adonai lives! And blessed be my Rock!
Exalted be God my salvation!
48 God—He gives me vengeance
and subdues peoples under me.
49 He delivers me from my enemies.
Indeed You lift me up above those who rise up against me.
You deliver me from the violent man.
50 Therefore I praise You among the nations,
Adonai, and sing praises to Your Name.[a]
Saul Killed on Mt. Gilboa
31 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. Israel’s men fled before the Philistines and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3 When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers hit him, so he was severely wounded by the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, or else these uncircumcised will come and thrust me through after torturing me.” But his armor-bearer refused, for he was too afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it. 5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.
7 When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and occupied them.
8 It was the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent them throughout the land of the Philistines, to spread the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. 10 Then they put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
11 Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men set out and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, then went to Jabesh and burned them there. 13 They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted for seven days.
9 Now about this service to the kedoshim, it is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you— 2 for I know your eagerness. I boast about it to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been preparing for a year already; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not be in vain in this case, so that you may be prepared, just as I kept saying. 4 Otherwise, if any Macedonians were to come and find you unprepared, we—not to mention you—would be put to shame in this undertaking. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on to you and arrange ahead of time your generous gift that had been promised beforehand, so that it would be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.