Bible Readings for Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

– The Week of The 15th Sunday After Pentecost

*Click on each bible passage to expand the text.

Psalm 28

1. [Of David.] To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me, I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.

2. Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.

3. Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who are workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors, while mischief is in their hearts.

4. Repay them according to their work, and according to the evil of their deeds; repay them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward.

5. Because they do not regard the works of the LORD, or the work of his hands, he will break them down and build them up no more.

6. Blessed be the LORD, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.

7. The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

8. The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.

9. O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them forever.

Judges 16:1-22

1. Once Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to her.

2. The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” So they circled around and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “Let us wait until the light of the morning; then we will kill him.”

3. But Samson lay only until midnight. Then at midnight he rose up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

4. After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

5. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6. So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you.”

7. Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.”

8. Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them.

9. While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10. Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound.”

11. He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.”

12. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else.”

14. So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web, and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

15. Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.”

16. Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.

17. So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.”

18. When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “This time come up, for he has told his whole secret to me.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hands.

19. She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him.

20. Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

21. So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison.

22. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Philippians 1:15-21

15. Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

16. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel;

17. the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment.

18. What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,

19. for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.

20. It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.

21. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.