Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said,

18 I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.

² Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I will trust; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

³ I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

⁴ The bands of death encompassed me, and torrents of Belial made me afraid.

⁵ The bands of Sheol surrounded me, the cords of death encountered me.

⁶ In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried out to my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, into his ears.

⁴³ Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; thou hast made me the head of the nations: a people I knew not doth serve me.

⁴⁴ At the hearing of the ear, they obey me: strangers come cringing unto me.

⁴⁵ Strangers have faded away, and they come trembling forth from their close places.

⁴⁶ Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of my salvation,

⁴⁷ The God who hath avenged me, and hath subjected the peoples to me;

⁴⁸ Who hath delivered me from mine enemies: yea, thou hast lifted me up above them that rose up against me; from the man of violence hast thou delivered me.

⁴⁹ Therefore will I give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among the nations, and will sing psalms to thy name.

⁵⁰ [It is he] who giveth great deliverances to his king, and sheweth loving-kindness to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

10 And the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on mount Gilboa.

² And the Philistines followed hard after Saul and after his sons; and the Philistines smote Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul's sons.

³ And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers came up with him, and he was terrified by the archers.

⁴ Then said Saul to his armour-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through with it; lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armour-bearer would not; for he was much afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

⁵ And when his armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword, and died.

⁶ So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his house died together.

⁷ And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

⁸ And it came to pass the next day, that the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his sons fallen on mount Gilboa.

⁹ And they stripped him, and took his head, and his armour, and sent [them] into the land of the Philistines round about, to announce the glad tidings to their idols, and to the people.

¹⁰ And they put his armour in the house of their god, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon.

¹¹ And when all they of Jabesh-Gilead heard of all that the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹² all the valiant men arose, and took up the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the terebinth of Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

¹³ And Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against Jehovah, because of the word of Jehovah which he kept not, and also for having inquired of the spirit of Python, asking counsel of it;

¹⁴ and he asked not counsel of Jehovah; therefore he slew him, and transferred the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.

¹⁴ And when he came to the disciples he saw a great crowd around them, and scribes disputing against them.

¹⁵ And immediately all the crowd seeing him were amazed, and running to [him], saluted him.

¹⁶ And he asked them, What do ye question with them about?

¹⁷ And one out of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought to thee my son, who has a dumb spirit;

¹⁸ and wheresoever it seizes him it tears him, and he foams and gnashes his teeth, and he is withering away. And I spoke to thy disciples, that they might cast him out, and they could not.

¹⁹ But he answering them says, O unbelieving generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him to me.

²⁰ And they brought him to him. And seeing him the spirit immediately tore him; and falling upon the earth he rolled foaming.

²¹ And he asked his father, How long a time is it that it has been like this with him? And he said, From childhood;

²² and often it has cast him both into fire and into waters that it might destroy him: but if thou couldst [do] anything, be moved with pity on us, and help us.

²³ And Jesus said to him, The 'if thou couldst' is [if thou couldst] believe: all things are possible to him that believes.

²⁴ And immediately the father of the young child crying out said [with tears], I believe, help mine unbelief.

²⁵ But Jesus, seeing that [the] crowd was running up together, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, *I* command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

²⁶ And having cried out and torn [him] much, he came out; and he became as if dead, so that the most said, He is dead.

²⁷ But Jesus, having taken hold of him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

²⁸ And when he was entered into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Wherefore could not *we* cast him out?

²⁹ And he said to them, This kind can go out by nothing but by prayer and fasting.