Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹ ¶ Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet almost departed from the way; my steps had almost slipped.

³ For I became angry against the foolish when I saw the peace of the wicked.

⁴ Because there is no restraint that would bring about their death, but their strength is firm.

⁵ They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

⁶ Therefore they are crowned with pride; they cover themselves with violence as a garment.

⁷ Their eyes stand out with fatness; they easily obtain the desires of their heart.

⁸ They are lawless and speak wickedly of doing violence; they speak loftily.

⁹ They set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue walks through the earth.

¹⁰ Therefore his people shall return here; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

¹¹ And they say, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

¹² Behold, these ungodly men, without being troubled by the world obtain riches.

¹³ Verily, in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency

¹⁴ and been plagued all day long and chastened every morning:

¹⁵ ¶ If I should say, I will speak as they do; behold, I should deny the generation of thy sons.

¹⁶ I shall meditate that I might understand this; it is very hard for me to see.

¹⁷ When I come into the sanctuary of God, then I shall understand their end.

¹⁸ Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; in desolation thou shalt cause them to fall.

¹⁹ How they are brought into desolation, as in a moment! They have come to an end; they are utterly consumed with terrors.

²⁰ As the dream of one who awakes; so, O Lord, when thou shalt rise up, thou shalt despise their appearances.

²¹ ¶ Truly my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my kidneys.

²² But I was ignorant and did not understand; I was as a beast before thee.

²³ Nevertheless I was continually with thee; thou hast apprehended me by my right hand.

²⁴ Thou hast guided me with thy counsel, and afterward thou shalt receive me unto glory.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but thee? And apart from thee there is nothing upon the earth that I desire.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart fail; the strength of my heart is that God is my portion for ever.

²⁷ For, behold, those that stray from thee shall perish; thou dost cut off all those that go a whoring from thee.

²⁸ But as for me, to draw near to God is good; I have put my hope in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

3 ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

² Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

³ So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

⁴ And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.

⁵ ¶ So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶ For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he threw his robe from him and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

⁷ And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water:

⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God; and let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹ Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we not perish?

¹⁰ And God saw their works, because they turned from their evil way, and he repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did not do it.

⁸ ¶ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day before the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day.

⁹ ¶ The Lord is not late concerning his promise, as some count lateness, but is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements, burning, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up.

¹¹ ¶ Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

¹² waiting for and desiring earnestly for the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

¹³ Nevertheless we, according to his promises, wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.