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Psalm 70

1  O God, make speed to save me; ♦︎
   O Lord, make haste to help me.
2  Let those who seek my life
      be put to shame and confusion; ♦︎
   let them be turned back and disgraced
      who wish me evil.
3  Let those who mock and deride me ♦︎
   turn back because of their shame.
4  But let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; ♦︎
   let those who love your salvation say always, ‘Great is the Lord!’
5  As for me, I am poor and needy; ♦︎
   come to me quickly, O God.
6  You are my help and my deliverer; ♦︎
   O Lord, do not delay.

Psalm 71

1  In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; ♦︎
   let me never be put to shame.
2  In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; ♦︎
   incline your ear to me and save me.
3  Be for me a stronghold to which I may ever resort; ♦︎
   send out to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
4  Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, ♦︎
   from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5  For you are my hope, O Lord God, ♦︎
   my confidence, even from my youth.
6  Upon you have I leaned from my birth,
      when you drew me from my mother’s womb; ♦︎
   my praise shall be always of you.
7  I have become a portent to many, ♦︎
   but you are my refuge and my strength.
8  Let my mouth be full of your praise ♦︎
   and your glory all the day long.
9  Do not cast me away in the time of old age; ♦︎
   forsake me not when my strength fails.
10  For my enemies are talking against me, ♦︎
   and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.
11  They say, ‘God has forsaken him;
      pursue him and take him, ♦︎
   because there is none to deliver him.’
12  O God, be not far from me; ♦︎
   come quickly to help me, O my God.
13  Let those who are against me
      be put to shame and disgrace; ♦︎
   let those who seek to do me evil
      be covered with scorn and reproach.
14  But as for me I will hope continually ♦︎
   and will praise you more and more.
15  My mouth shall tell of your righteousness
      and salvation all the day long, ♦︎
   for I know no end of the telling.
16  I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God; ♦︎
   I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.
17  O God, you have taught me since I was young, ♦︎
   and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.
18  Forsake me not, O God,
      when I am old and grey-headed, ♦︎
   till I make known your deeds to the next generation
      and your power to all that are to come.
19  Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens; ♦︎
   in the great things you have done, who is like you, O God?
20  What troubles and adversities you have shown me, ♦︎
   and yet you will turn and refresh me
      and bring me from the deep of the earth again.
21  Increase my honour; ♦︎
   turn again and comfort me.
22  Therefore will I praise you upon the harp
      for your faithfulness, O my God; ♦︎
   I will sing to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23  My lips will sing out as I play to you, ♦︎
   and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
24  My tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long, ♦︎
   for they shall be shamed and disgraced
      who sought to do me evil.

19 Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, ‘The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves’; ²⁰so all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, mattocks, axes, or sickles;^{* 21}The charge was two-thirds of a shekel^* for the ploughshares and for the mattocks, and one-third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.^{* 22}So on the day of the battle neither sword nor spear was to be found in the possession of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan; but Saul and his son Jonathan had them.

Jonathan Surprises and Routs the Philistines

23 Now a garrison of the Philistines had gone out to the pass of Michmash. 14¹One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.’ But he did not tell his father. ²Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree that is at Migron; the troops that were with him were about six hundred men, ³along with Ahijah son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, son of Phinehas son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, carrying an ephod. Now the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. ⁴In the pass,^* by which Jonathan tried to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on one side and a rocky crag on the other; the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. ⁵One crag rose on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

6 Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will act for us; for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.’ ⁷His armour-bearer said to him, ‘Do all that your mind inclines to.^* I am with you; as your mind is, so is mine.’^{* 8}Then Jonathan said, ‘Now we will cross over to those men and will show ourselves to them. ⁹If they say to us, “Wait until we come to you”, then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. ¹⁰But if they say, “Come up to us”, then we will go up; for the Lord has given them into our hand. That will be the sign for us.’ ¹¹So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines; and the Philistines said, ‘Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.’ ¹²The men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armour-bearer, saying, ‘Come up to us, and we will show you something.’ Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, ‘Come up after me; for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.’ ¹³Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, with his armour-bearer following after him. The Philistines^* fell before Jonathan, and his armour-bearer, coming after him, killed them. ¹⁴In that first slaughter Jonathan and his armour-bearer killed about twenty men within an area about half a furrow long in an acre^* of land. ¹⁵There was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison and even the raiders trembled; the earth quaked; and it became a very great panic.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

26 As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. ²⁸But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the days are surely coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” ³⁰Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us”; and to the hills, “Cover us.” ³¹For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’