Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
18 To the Overseer. -- By a servant of Jehovah, by David, who hath spoken to Jehovah the words of this song in the day Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he saith: -- I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
2 Jehovah [is] my rock, and my bulwark, And my deliverer, My God [is] my rock, I trust in Him: My shield, and a horn of my salvation, My high tower.
3 The `Praised One' I call Jehovah, And from my enemies I am saved.
4 Compassed me have cords of death, And streams of the worthless make me afraid.
5 Cords of Sheol have surrounded me, Before me have been snares of death.
6 In mine adversity I call Jehovah, And unto my God I cry. He heareth from His temple my voice, And My cry before Him cometh into His ears.
43 Thou dost deliver me From the strivings of the people, Thou placest me for a head of nations, A people I have not known do serve me.
44 At the hearing of the ear they hearken to me, Sons of a stranger feign obedience to me,
45 Sons of a stranger fade away, And are slain out of their close places.
46 Jehovah liveth -- and blessed [is] my rock, And exalted is the God of my salvation.
47 God -- who is giving vengeance to me, And He subdueth peoples under me,
48 My deliverer from mine enemies, Above my withstanders Thou raisest me, From a man of violence dost deliver me.
49 Therefore I confess Thee among nations, O Jehovah, And to Thy name I sing praise,
50 Magnifying the salvation of His king, And doing kindness to His anointed, To David, and to his seed -- unto the age!
31 And the Philistines are fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel flee from the face of the Philistines, and fall wounded in mount Gilboa,
2 and the Philistines follow Saul and his sons, and the Philistines smite Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul.
3 And the battle is hard against Saul, and the archers find him -- men with bow -- and he is pained greatly by the archers;
4 and Saul saith to the bearer of his weapons, `Draw thy sword, and pierce me with it, lest they come -- these uncircumcised -- and have pierced me, and rolled themselves on me;' and the bearer of his weapons hath not been willing, for he is greatly afraid, and Saul taketh the sword, and falleth upon it.
5 And the bearer of his weapons seeth that Saul [is] dead, and he falleth -- he also -- on his sword, and dieth with him;
6 and Saul dieth, and three of his sons, and the bearer of his weapons, also all his men, on that day together.
7 And they see -- the men of Israel, who [are] beyond the valley, and who [are] beyond the Jordan -- that the men of Israel have fled, and that Saul and his sons have died, and they forsake the cities and flee, and Philistines come in, and dwell in them.
8 And it cometh to pass on the morrow, that the Philistines come to strip the wounded, and they find Saul and his three sons fallen on mount Gilboa,
9 and they cut off his head, and strip off his weapons, and send into the land of the Philistines round about, to proclaim tidings [in] the house of their idols, and [among] the people;
10 and they place his weapons [in] the house of Ashtaroth, and his body they have fixed on the wall of Beth-Shan.
11 And they hear regarding it -- the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead -- that which the Philistines have done to Saul,
12 and all the men of valour arise, and go all the night, and take the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, from the wall of Beth-Shan, and come in to Jabesh, and burn them there,
13 and they take their bones, and bury [them] under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and fast seven days.
9 For, indeed, concerning the ministration that [is] for the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you,
2 for I have known your readiness of mind, which in your behalf I boast of to Macedonians, that Achaia hath been prepared a year ago, and the zeal of you did stir up the more part,
3 and I sent the brethren, that our boasting on your behalf may not be made vain in this respect; that, according as I said, ye may be ready,
4 lest if Macedonians may come with me, and find you unprepared, we -- we may be put to shame (that we say not -- ye) in this same confidence of boasting.
5 Necessary, therefore, I thought [it] to exhort the brethren, that they may go before to you, and may make up before your formerly announced blessing, that this be ready, as a blessing, and not as covetousness.