Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 53

A Portrait of Sinners

For the choir director: on Mahalath.^(A) A Maskil of David.

The Widow’s Oil Multiplied

4 One of the wives of the sons of the prophets^(A) cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord.^(B) Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”^(C)

² Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”^(D)

³ Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few.^{(E) 4} Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” ⁵ So she left.

After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring.^{(F) 6} When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”

But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped.

⁷ She went and told the man of God,^(G) and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.”^(H)

Feeding of the Five Thousand

¹⁰ When the apostles returned,^(A) they reported to Jesus all that they had done.^(B) He took them along and withdrew privately to a^[a] town called Bethsaida.^{(C) 11} When the crowds found out, they followed him. He welcomed them,^(D) spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the day,^(E) the Twelve approached and said to him, “Send the crowd away,^(F) so that they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and lodging, because we are in a deserted place here.”

¹³ “You give them something to eat,” he told them.

“We have no more than five loaves^(G) and two fish,” they said, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (For about five thousand men were there.)

Then he told his disciples, “Have them sit down^[b] in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did what he said, and had them all sit down. ¹⁶ Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,^(H) he blessed and broke them.^(I) He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ Everyone ate and was filled. They picked up twelve baskets of leftover pieces.