Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David and Bathsheba

11 In the spring, David sent out his army to attack the Ammonites. That was the time of year when kings go out to fight battles.^[a] Joab led the whole Israelite army, together with his officers. They attacked the Ammonites, and they won the fight against them. Israel's army made their camp all around Rabbah city. But David had stayed in Jerusalem.

² One evening, David got up from his bed. He walked around on the roof of his palace.^[b] From the roof he saw a woman who was washing herself. She was very beautiful. ³ David sent a servant to ask who she was. The servant told him, ‘She is Eliam's daughter, Bathsheba. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’

⁴ Then David sent some servants to bring Bathsheba to him. She came to him and he slept with her. (She had just made herself clean from her monthly blood loss.) Then she returned to her home. ⁵ Later, Bathsheba realized that she was pregnant. She sent a message to tell David about it.

⁶ So David sent a message to Joab. He said, ‘Send Uriah the Hittite to me.’ So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah arrived, David asked him about Joab and the Israelite army. He asked Uriah about the war. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Now go to your house and rest for a time.’ So Uriah left the palace. Then King David sent a gift to him at home. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the palace, together with his master's servants. He did not go to his house.

¹⁰ David's servants told him, ‘Uriah did not go to his house last night.’ So David said to Uriah, ‘You have just arrived after a long journey. Why did you not go to your house?’

¹¹ Uriah said to David, ‘The armies of Israel and Judah are all living in tents, as well as the Covenant Box. My master Joab and the soldiers of your army are sleeping in the fields. So I cannot go to my house and eat a meal there. It would not be right for me to go home and sleep with my wife. As surely as you live, I promise that I would never do that!’

¹² David said to Uriah, ‘Stay here one more day. Tomorrow I will send you back to the war.’ So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next day. ¹³ David asked him to come and eat a meal with him. David caused Uriah to drink a lot of wine so that he became drunk. But in the evening Uriah still did not go to his own house. He slept on his mat, where his master's servants all slept.

¹⁴ In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab. Uriah took the letter to Joab. ¹⁵ In the letter, David told Joab, ‘Put Uriah at the front of all our soldiers, where the battle is most dangerous. Then tell the other soldiers to move back away from him. Then he will be alone and the enemy's soldiers will kill him.’

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

God rules the world

Paul prays for the Christians at Ephesus

¹⁴ Yes, that is why I pray for you. I go down on my knees to pray to God, our Father. ¹⁵ Every family, those in heaven and those on earth, receives its true name from him. ¹⁶ I pray that God will cause you to be strong in your spirits. God has great and valuable things in heaven to help you. I pray that God's Spirit will help you with God's own power. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will make his home in you, as you believe in him. Then you will know God's love very well. You will be like trees that have roots which go down deep into God's love. That will make you strong. ¹⁸ Then you will understand, with all God's people, how much Christ loves us. That love is very wide and long and high and deep! ¹⁹ Christ's love for us is so great that nobody can ever completely know it. As you understand this more and more, God's own nature will completely fill you.

²⁰ We praise God, who causes his power to work in us. In that way, he is able to do much more than we could ever ask for. He can do much more than we could even think about. ²¹ We want all God's people to know that God is great! Everyone who belongs to his church and who trusts in Christ Jesus should praise him! We should praise him always and for ever. Amen. That is true!

Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families

6 Some time after that, Jesus went across Lake Galilee, which is also called Lake Tiberias. ² A large crowd of people followed him, because of the miracles that he had done. They had seen him make sick people well. ³ Jesus went up a hill and he sat down there with his disciples. ⁴ It was nearly the time for the Jewish Passover Festival.

⁵ Jesus looked up. He saw a large crowd of people who were coming towards him. He said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough bread to feed all these people?’ ⁶ Jesus himself already knew what he would do. But he asked Philip this question because he wanted to know what Philip would say. ⁷ Philip answered, ‘A man could work for eight months to get 200 silver coins. But he still would not have enough money to buy bread for all these people. There would not be enough bread for each person here to have even a little piece.’ ⁸ Then Andrew, another one of Jesus' disciples, spoke. He was Simon Peter's brother. ⁹ He said to Jesus, ‘Here is a boy who has five small loaves and two fish. But that will certainly not be enough food for so many people.’

¹⁰ Jesus said, ‘Tell the people to sit down.’ There was plenty of grass in that place, so the people sat down. There were about 5,000 men in the crowd. ¹¹ Jesus took the loaves of bread and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the loaves into pieces. He passed them to all the people who were sitting there. Everyone had as much bread as they wanted to eat. Jesus did the same with the fish. ¹² When everyone had eaten enough food, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not waste anything. Pick up all the little bits of food that people have not eaten.’ ¹³ So the disciples picked up all the pieces. They filled 12 baskets with the bits of bread that the people had not eaten.

¹⁴ The people saw this miracle that Jesus did. So they began to talk about it. They said, ‘Certainly, this man is the Prophet who must come into the world.’ ¹⁵ The people wanted to take hold of Jesus so that they could make him their king. But Jesus knew that they wanted to do this. So he went away to the hills again by himself.

Jesus walks on the water

¹⁶ When it was evening, Jesus' disciples went down to the lake. ¹⁷ They got into a boat and they started to sail towards Capernaum. It had become dark and Jesus still had not come to them. ¹⁸ A very strong wind was blowing and the waves became dangerous. ¹⁹ The disciples were trying to move the boat through the water. When they had gone about six kilometres they saw Jesus. He was walking on the water and coming near to the boat. They were very afraid. ²⁰ But Jesus said to them, ‘It is I. Do not be afraid.’ ²¹ So the disciples were happy to let Jesus get into the boat. Immediately, the boat came to the shore where they wanted to be.