Psalm 71:1–6, 17–18

¹In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
³Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
⁶Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.

¹⁷O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
¹⁸So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.

Old Testament Reading Job 8

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
³Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
⁴If your children have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
⁵If you will seek God
and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
⁶if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful habitation.
⁷And though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.
⁸“For inquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what the fathers have searched out.
⁹For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?
¹¹“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
¹²While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
¹³Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.
¹⁴His confidence is severed,
and his trust is a spider’s web.
¹⁵He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
¹⁶He is a lush plant before the sun,
and his shoots spread over his garden.
¹⁷His roots entwine the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.
¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place,
then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of the soil others will spring.
²⁰“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Old Testament Reading John 4:27–45

²⁷Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

⁴³After the two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.