Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³³ Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.

³⁴ Give me understanding and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

³⁵ Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein do I delight.

³⁶ Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness;

³⁷ turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken Thou me in Thy way.

³⁸ Establish Thy word unto Thy servant, who is devoted to the fear of Thee.

³⁹ Turn away my reproach which I fear, for Thy judgments are good.

⁴⁰ Behold, I have longed after Thy precepts; quicken me in Thy righteousness.

24 Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

² “Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: The king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

³ And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it.

⁴ Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece — the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones.

⁵ Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it; and make it boil well, and let them boil the bones of it therein.

⁶ “‘Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein and whose scum is not gone out of it! Bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.

⁷ For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸ That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹ “‘Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.

¹⁰ Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹ Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.

¹² She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her; her scum shall be in the fire.

¹³ In thy filthiness is lewdness. Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused My fury to rest upon thee.

¹⁴ I, the Lord, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it. I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. According to thy ways and according to thy doings shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God.’”

¹¹ I have become a fool in glorying. Ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you. For in nothing am I inferior to the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing.

¹² Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

¹³ For in what are ye inferior to other churches, unless it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!

¹⁴ Behold, for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵ And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.

¹⁶ But be it so, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

¹⁷ Did I gain from you by any of those whom I sent unto you?

¹⁸ I desired Titus to go, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make any gain from you? Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps?

¹⁹ Again, think you that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ; but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

²⁰ For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found by you as ye would not, lest there be debates, envyings, wrath, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, boastings, tumults;

²¹ and lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.