Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ Thus said Jehovah, king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: `I [am] the first, and I the last, And besides Me there is no God.

⁷ And who as I, doth call and declare it, And arrange it for Me, Since My placing the people of antiquity, And things that are coming, And those that do come, declare they to them?

⁸ Fear not, nor be afraid, Have I not from that time caused thee to hear, and declared? And ye [are] My witnesses, Is there a God besides Me? yea, there is none, A Rock I have not known.

¹¹ Show me, O Jehovah, Thy way, I walk in Thy truth, My heart doth rejoice to fear Thy name.

¹² I confess Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I honour Thy name to the age.

¹³ For Thy kindness [is] great toward me, And Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

¹⁴ O God, the proud have risen up against me, And a company of the terrible sought my soul, And have not placed Thee before them,

¹⁵ And Thou, O Lord, [art] God, merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abundant in kindness and truth.

¹⁶ Look unto me, and favour me, Give Thy strength to Thy servant, And give salvation to a son of Thine handmaid.

¹⁷ Do with me a sign for good, And those hating me see and are ashamed, For Thou, O Jehovah, hast helped me, Yea, Thou hast comforted me!

¹² So, then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh;

¹³ for if according to the flesh ye do live, ye are about to die; and if, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body ye put to death, ye shall live;

¹⁴ for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God;

¹⁵ for ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye did receive a spirit of adoption in which we cry, `Abba -- Father.'

¹⁶ The Spirit himself doth testify with our spirit, that we are children of God;

¹⁷ and if children, also heirs, heirs, indeed, of God, and heirs together of Christ -- if, indeed, we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.

¹⁸ For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory about to be revealed in us;

¹⁹ for the earnest looking out of the creation doth expect the revelation of the sons of God;

²⁰ for to vanity was the creation made subject -- not of its will, but because of Him who did subject [it] -- in hope,

²¹ that also the creation itself shall be set free from the servitude of the corruption to the liberty of the glory of the children of God;

²² for we have known that all the creation doth groan together, and doth travail in pain together till now.

²³ And not only [so], but also we ourselves, having the first-fruit of the Spirit, we also ourselves in ourselves do groan, adoption expecting -- the redemption of our body;

²⁴ for in hope we were saved, and hope beheld is not hope; for what any one doth behold, why also doth he hope for [it]?

²⁵ and if what we do not behold we hope for, through continuance we expect [it].

²⁴ Another simile he set before them, saying: `The reign of the heavens was likened to a man sowing good seed in his field,

²⁵ and, while men are sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat, and went away,

²⁶ and when the herb sprang up, and yielded fruit, then appeared also the darnel.

²⁷ `And the servants of the householder, having come near, said to him, Sir, good seed didst thou not sow in thy field? whence then hath it the darnel?

²⁸ And he saith to them, A man, an enemy, did this; and the servants said to him, Wilt thou, then, [that] having gone away we may gather it up?

²⁹ `And he said, No, lest -- gathering up the darnel -- ye root up with it the wheat,

³⁰ suffer both to grow together till the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the darnel, and bind it in bundles, to burn it, and the wheat gather up into my storehouse.'

³⁶ Then having let away the multitudes, Jesus came to the house, and his disciples came near to him, saying, `Explain to us the simile of the darnel of the field.'

³⁷ And he answering said to them, `He who is sowing the good seed is the Son of Man,

³⁸ and the field is the world, and the good seed, these are the sons of the reign, and the darnel are the sons of the evil one,

³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is a full end of the age, and the reapers are messengers.

⁴⁰ `As, then, the darnel is gathered up, and is burned with fire, so shall it be in the full end of this age,

⁴¹ the Son of Man shall send forth his messengers, and they shall gather up out of his kingdom all the stumbling-blocks, and those doing the unlawlessness,

⁴² and shall cast them to the furnace of the fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.

⁴³ `Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the reign of their Father. He who is having ears to hear -- let him hear.