Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
1 ¶ Halelu-JAH. Praise, O ye slaves of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised.
4 The LORD is high above all Gentiles and his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high,
6 who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth!
7 He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the destitute out of the dunghill;
8 that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
9 He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of sons. Halelu-JAH.
17 ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross; they are all brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are become the dross of silver.
19 Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it to melt it, so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will cause you to rest, and melt you.
21 I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23 ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art not clean land, nor art thou sprinkled with rain in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken treasures and honour; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have violated my law by force and have profaned my holy things; they have made no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they showed the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to follow their own greed.
28 And her prophets have plastered them over with loose mud, prophesying vanity and divining lies unto them, saying: Thus hath the Lord GOD said, when the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have done violence unto the poor and needy; they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.
31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have recompensed their own way upon their heads, said the Lord GOD.
31 ¶ What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who shall be against us?
32 He that did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also give us all things with him?
33 Who shall accuse the chosen of God’s? God is he that justifies them.
34 Who is he that condemns them? Christ, Jesus, is he who died and, even more, he that also rose again, who furthermore is at the right hand of God, who also makes entreaty for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
36 (As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
37 Nevertheless, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 Therefore I am certain that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come
39 nor height nor depth nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ, Jesus our Lord.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International