Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Let Everything Praise the Lord

¹⁹ Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. ²⁰ And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to ^(A)the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. ²¹ And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. ²² And David left the ^(B)things in charge of the keeper of the ^(C)baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. ²³ As he talked with them, behold, ^(D)the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke ^(E)the same words as before. And David heard him.

²⁴ All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. ²⁵ And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to ^(F)defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches ^(G)and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.” ²⁶ And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away ^(H)the reproach from Israel? For who is this ^(I)uncircumcised Philistine, that he should ^(J)defy the armies of ^(K)the living God?” ²⁷ And the people answered him in the same way, ^(L)“So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

²⁸ Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” ²⁹ And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” ³⁰ And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke ^(M)in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

³¹ When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. ³² And David said to Saul, ^(N)“Let no man's heart fail because of him. ^(O)Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

The Apostles Arrested and Freed

¹⁷ But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of ^(A)the Sadducees), and filled with ^(B)jealousy ¹⁸ they arrested the apostles and ^(C)put them in the public prison. ¹⁹ But during the night ^(D)an angel of the Lord ^(E)opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all ^(F)the words of ^(G)this ^(H)Life.” ²¹ And when they heard this, ^(I)they entered the temple ^(J)at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” ²⁴ Now when ^(K)the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. ²⁵ And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison ^(L)are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then ^(M)the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for ^(N)they were afraid of being stoned by the people.