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.

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.

²⁴ And all the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and feared greatly.

²⁵ And each one of the men of Israel were saying, Have ye seen this man that is come up? He is come up to dishonour Israel. It shall be that the king will enrich the man who overcomes him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.

²⁶ Then David spoke to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that overcomes this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should dishonour the armies of the living God?

²⁷ And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that overcomes him.

²⁸ And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke unto the men, and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why didst thou come down here? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the malice of thy heart, for thou art come down that thou might see the battle.

²⁹ And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

³⁰ And he turned from him toward another and spoke after the same manner, and the people answered him again after the former manner.

³¹ ¶ And the words which David had spoken were heard, and they were rehearsed before Saul, and he sent for him.

³² And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy slave will go and fight with this Philistine.

¹⁷ ¶ Then the prince of the priests rose up, and all those that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees) were filled with jealousy

¹⁸ and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

¹⁹ But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said,

²⁰ Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

²¹ And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. In the meantime, the prince of the priests came, and those that were with him, and called the council together and all the elders of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

²² But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told,

²³ saying, We certainly found the prison shut with all security and the keepers standing outside before the doors, but when we had opened, we found no one within.

²⁴ Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the princes of the priests heard these things, they were perplexed regarding what this would come to.

²⁵ Then someone came and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

²⁶ ¶ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them without violence, for they feared being stoned by the people.