Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Prayer of Hannah

2 Hannah prayed, saying:

God Calls Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no vision coming forth.

² At that time, Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak that he could not see), ³ and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was.

⁴ Then the Lord called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called to me.”

And he said, “I did not call. Return, lie down again.” And he went and lay down.

⁶ The Lord called Samuel again. So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

And he answered, “I did not call, my son. Return, lie down again.”

⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him.

⁸ The Lord again called Samuel a third time. So he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling to the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down. And it will be, if He calls you, that you will say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant listens.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and stood, and He called as at other times, “Samuel, Samuel.”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant listens.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am doing something in Israel which will make both ears ring of every one that hears it. ¹² In that day I will bring about against Eli everything which I have spoken with regard to his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For I told him that I will judge his house forever, for the guilt which he knew, because his sons are cursed, and he did not rebuke them. ¹⁴ Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for with sacrifice nor offering forever.”

¹⁵ Samuel lay until the morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Now Samuel feared to report the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel, and said, “Samuel, my son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

¹⁷ He said, “What is the thing that the Lord has spoken to you? Do not hide it from me. Thus may God do so to you, and more also, if you hide from me a word out of all the things that He spoke to you.” ¹⁸ Samuel told him everything, and did not hide from him a thing. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes.”

The Parable of the Vineyard and the Vinedressers^(A)

12 He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower, and rented it to vinedressers, and went to a far country. ² At harvest time he sent a servant to the vinedressers to receive from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Then he sent another servant to them. They threw stones at him, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. ⁵ Still he sent another, and they killed him. And there were many others. Some they beat, and some they killed.

⁶ “Having yet his one well-beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will revere my son.’

⁷ “But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not read this Scripture:

¹² Then they tried to seize Him, but feared the people, for they knew that He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went their way.