Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹ ¶ Halelu-JAH. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

² In my life I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises unto my God while I live.

³ Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation.

⁴ His spirit shall go forth, he shall return to his earth; in that very day all his thoughts shall perish.

⁵ ¶ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God;

⁶ who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is therein; who keeps truth for ever:

⁷ He who does justice unto the oppressed; who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD looses the prisoners:

⁸ The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD raises those that are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous:

⁹ The LORD preserves the strangers; he raises up the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

¹⁰ The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halelu-JAH.

² ¶ The rich and poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all.

³ ¶ A prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and receive hurt.

⁴ ¶ Riches and honour and life are the remuneration of humility and of the fear of the LORD.

⁵ ¶ Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; he that keeps his soul shall be far from them.

⁶ ¶ Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

⁷ ¶ The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

⁸ ¶ He that sows iniquity shall reap iniquity, and the rod of his anger shall fail.

⁹ ¶ He that has a merciful eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the destitute.

¹⁰ ¶ Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; strife and reproach shall cease.

¹¹ ¶ He that loves pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.

¹² ¶ The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthrows the words of the transgressor.

¹³ ¶ The slothful man says, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

¹⁴ ¶ The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

¹⁵ ¶ Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

¹⁶ ¶ He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches and who gives to the rich shall surely come to want.

⁸ I speak not as commanding, but by occasion of the diligence of others and to prove the sincerity of your charity.

⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be enriched.

¹⁰ And in this I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who began not only to do, but also to be diligent a year ago.

¹¹ Now therefore finish the doing of it that as there was a readiness to will, so there may also be a performance out of that which ye have.

¹² For if there is first a willing desire, it is accepted according to what a person has and not according to what they do not have.

¹³ For I mean not that others be eased and ye burdened,

¹⁴ but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality:

¹⁵ As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack.