Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ Halelu-JAH. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the firmament of his power.

² Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him according to his excellent greatness.

³ Praise him with the sound of the shofar; praise him with the psaltery and harp.

⁴ Praise him with the timbrel and dance; praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

⁵ Praise him upon the loud cymbals; praise him upon the cymbals of joy.

⁶ Let every thing that has breath praise JAH. Halelu-JAH.

17 ¶ Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongs to Judah, and pitched camp between Shochoh and Azekah in Ephesdammim.

² And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched camp by the valley of Elah and ordered the battle against the Philistines.

³ And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side; and there was a valley between them.

⁴ And a man named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, came out of the camp of the Philistines and stood between the two camps.

⁵ And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was clothed with a coat of mail of scales; and the weight of the coat of mail was five thousand shekels of brass.

⁶ And he had greaves of brass upon his legs and a shield of brass between his shoulders.

⁷ And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him.

⁸ And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and ye slaves to Saul? Choose a man from among you, and let him come down to me.

⁹ If he is able to fight with me and to overcome me, then will we be your slaves, but if I prevail against him and overcome him, then ye shall be our slaves and serve us.

¹⁰ And the Philistine said, I have dishonoured the ranks of Israel today; give me a man that we may fight together.

¹¹ When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

¹² ¶ And David was the son of an Ephrathite man of Bethlehem of Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons, and this man was old in the days of Saul and of advanced age among men.

¹³ And the three eldest sons of Jesse had gone and followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab and the third Shammah.

¹⁴ And David was the youngest, the three eldest having gone after Saul.

¹⁵ But David had gone and returned from being with Saul to feed his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.

¹⁶ And the Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself for forty days.

¹⁷ And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves and run to the camp to thy brethren

¹⁸ and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand and look how thy brethren fare and take their pledge.

¹⁹ Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.

²⁰ And David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took and went with his burden as Jesse had commanded him, and he came to the trench as the host was going forth in battle array, and they had already sounded the alarm for the battle.

²¹ For Israel and the Philistines had ordered the battle, army against army.

²² And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came and asked about his brethren, if they were well.

²³ And as he talked with them, behold, there came up that man, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, speaking the same words, and David heard them.

¹² ¶ And by the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were wrought in the people. (And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.

¹³ And of the others, no one dared join themself to them, but the people magnified them.

¹⁴ And those that believed in the Lord increased in number, multitudes both of men and women.)

¹⁵ So much that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

¹⁶ There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one.