Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
For the choir director; according to mahalath,[a] a maskil by David.
53 Godless fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt.
They do disgusting things.
There is no one who does good things.
2 God looks down from heaven on Adam’s descendants
to see if there is anyone who acts wisely,
if there is anyone who seeks help from God.
3 Everyone has fallen away.
Together they have become rotten to the core.
No one, not even one person, does good things.
4 Are all those troublemakers,
those who devour my people as if they were devouring food,
so ignorant that they do not call on God?
5 There they are—panic-stricken—
⌞but⌟ there was no reason to panic,
because God has scattered the bones
of those who set up camp against you.
You put them to shame.
After all, God has rejected them.
6 If only salvation for Israel would come from Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice.
Israel will be glad.
Elisha and the Widow’s Olive Oil
4 One of the wives of a disciple of the prophets called to Elisha, “Sir, my husband is dead! You know how he feared the Lord. Now a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.”
2 Elisha asked her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
She answered, “I have nothing in the house except a jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Borrow many empty containers from all your neighbors. 4 Then close the door behind you and your children, and pour oil into all those containers. When one is full, set it aside.”
5 So she left him and closed the door behind her and her children. The children kept bringing containers to her, and she kept pouring. 6 When the containers were full, she told her son, “Bring me another container.”
He told her, “There are no more containers.” So the olive oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God.
He said, “Sell the oil, and pay your debt. The rest is for you and your children.”
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(A)
10 The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him to a city called Bethsaida so that they could be alone. 11 But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them, talked to them about God’s kingdom, and cured those who were sick.
12 Toward the end of the day, the twelve apostles came to him. They said to him, “Send the crowd to the closest villages and farms so that they can find some food and a place to stay. No one lives around here.”
13 Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish. Unless we go to buy food for all these people, that’s all we have.” 14 (There were about five thousand men.)
Then he told his disciples, “Have them sit in groups of about fifty.” 15 So they did this.
16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart and kept giving them to the disciples to give to the crowd. 17 All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets.
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