Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Unbelieving Fool
For the director of music. By mahalath [C perhaps “sickness”]. A ·maskil [skillful psalm; meditation] of David.
53 Fools say ·to themselves [L in their hearts],
“There is no God [C Psalm 14 largely parallels this psalm].”
·Fools are evil [L They are corrupt] and do ·terrible [detestable] things [Deut. 32:5];
none of them does anything good.
2 God looked down from heaven on all people
to see if anyone was ·wise [insightful],
if anyone was ·looking to God for help [seeking God].
3 But all have ·turned [wandered] away.
Together, everyone has become ·evil [perverse];
none of them does anything good.
Not a single person [Rom. 3:10–12].
4 Don’t ·the wicked [L those who do evil] ·understand [know]?
They ·destroy [consume; L eat] my people as if they were ·eating [consuming] bread.
They do not ·ask God for help [call on God].
5 The wicked are ·filled [terrified] with terror
where there ·had been nothing to [L was no] fear.
God will scatter the bones of ·your enemies [the godless].
You will ·defeat [shame; humiliate] them,
because God has rejected them.
6 I pray that ·victory [salvation] will come to Israel from Mount Zion [C the location of the Temple, the house of God]!
May God ·bring them back [restore the fortunes of his people; C perhaps at the end of the exile].
Then the people of Jacob will rejoice,
and the people of Israel will be glad.
A Widow Asks Elisha for Help
4 The wife of a man from the ·groups [company; brotherhood; L sons] of prophets said to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know he ·honored [revered; feared] the Lord. But now ·the man he owes money to [a creditor] is coming to take my two boys as his slaves!”
2 Elisha answered, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
The woman said, “I don’t have anything there except a ·pot [jar; flask] of oil.”
3 Then Elisha said, “Go and get empty jars from all your neighbors. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go into your house and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and set the full ones aside.”
5 So she left Elisha and shut the door behind her and her sons. As they brought the jars to her, she poured out the oil. 6 When the jars were all full, she said to her son, “Bring me another jar.”
But he said, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told Elisha. And the prophet said to her, “Go, sell the oil and pay ·what you owe [your debts]. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
More than Five Thousand Fed(A)
10 When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then Jesus took them with him to a town called Bethsaida where they could be alone together. 11 But the ·people [crowds] learned where Jesus went and followed him. He welcomed them and talked with them about God’s kingdom and healed those who needed to be healed.
12 Late in the afternoon, ·the twelve apostles [L the Twelve] came to Jesus and said, “Send the ·people [crowd] away. They need to go to the ·towns [villages] and countryside around here and find places to sleep and something to eat, because ·no one lives in this [L we are in a remote/deserted] place.”
13 But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
They said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish, unless we go buy food for all these people.” 14 (There were about five thousand men there.)
Jesus said to his ·followers [disciples], “Tell the people to sit in groups of about fifty people.”
15 So ·the followers [L they] did this, and all the people sat down. 16 Then Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he ·thanked God for [L blessed] the food. Then he ·divided the food [broke it into pieces] and gave it to the ·followers [disciples] to ·give to [distribute to; L set before] the people. 17 They all ate and were ·satisfied [filled], and what was left over was gathered up, filling twelve baskets.
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