Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song; a Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.

48 Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the hill of his holiness.

² Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, [on] the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

³ God is known in her palaces as a high fortress.

⁴ For behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together;

⁵ They saw,—so they marvelled; they were troubled, they fled in consternation:

⁶ Trembling took hold upon them there; anguish, as of a woman in travail.

⁷ With an east wind thou hast broken the ships of Tarshish.

⁸ As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God: God doth establish it for ever. Selah.

⁹ We have thought, O God, of thy loving-kindness, in the midst of thy temple.

¹⁰ According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹ Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion, and go round about her: count the towers thereof;

¹³ Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces: that ye may tell it to the generation following.

¹⁴ For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide until death.

3 And the war was long between the house of Saul and the house of David; but David became continually stronger, and the house of Saul became continually weaker.

² And to David were sons born in Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jizreelitess;

³ and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maachah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

⁴ and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

⁵ and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.

⁶ And it came to pass while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul.

⁷ And Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And [Ishbosheth] said to Abner, Why hast thou gone in to my father's concubine?

⁸ Then was Abner very wroth for the words of Ishbosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head, I who against Judah do shew kindness this day to the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou reproachest me this day with the fault of this woman?

⁹ So do God to Abner, and more also, if, as Jehovah has sworn to David, I do not so to him;

¹⁰ to translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beer-sheba!

¹¹ And he could not answer Abner a word again, because he feared him.

¹² And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying [also], Make thy covenant with me, and behold, my hand shall be with thee, to turn all Israel to thee.

⁷ Do ye look at what concerns appearance? If any one has confidence in himself that he is of Christ, let him think this again in himself, that even as he [is] of Christ, so also [are] we.

⁸ For and if I should boast even somewhat more abundantly of our authority, which the Lord has given [to us] for building up and not for your overthrowing, I shall not be put to shame;

⁹ that I may not seem as if I was frightening you by letters:

¹⁰ because his letters, he says, [are] weighty and strong, but his presence in the body weak, and his speech naught.

¹¹ Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters [when] absent, such also present in deed.