Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

4 Unto the end, in verses. A psalm for David.

² When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was in distress, thou hast enlarged me. Have mercy on me: and hear my prayer.

³ O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?

⁴ Know ye also that the Lord hath made his holy one wonderful: the Lord will hear me when I shall cry unto him.

⁵ Be angry, and sin not: the things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.

⁶ Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord: many say, Who sheweth us good things?

⁷ The light of thy countenance O Lord, is signed upon us: thou hast given gladness in my heart.

⁸ By the fruit of their corn, their wine and oil, they are multiplied.

⁹ In peace in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest:

¹⁰ For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.

9 In the first year of Darius the son of Assuerus of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans:

² The first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, that seventy years should be accomplished of the desolation of Jerusalem.

³ And I set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and make supplication with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴ And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord God, great and terrible, who keepest the covenant, and mercy to them that love thee, and keep thy commandments.

⁵ We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted: and we have gone aside from thy commandments, and thy judgments.

⁶ We have not hearkened to thy servants the prophets, that have spoken in thy name to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

⁷ To thee, O Lord, justice: but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, for their iniquities by which they have sinned against thee.

⁸ O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers that have sinned.

⁹ But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee:

¹⁰ And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his law, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

¹¹ And all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have turned away from hearing thy voice, and the malediction, and the curse, which is written in the book of Moses the servant of God, is fallen upon us, because we have sinned against him.

¹² And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us, and against our princes that judged us, that he would bring in upon us a great evil, such as never was under all the heaven, according to that which hath been done in Jerusalem.

¹³ As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth.

¹⁴ And the Lord hath watched upon the evil, and hath brought it upon us: the Lord our God is just in all his works which he hath done: for we have not hearkened to his voice.

¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought forth thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name as at this day: we have sinned, we have committed iniquity,

¹⁶ O Lord, against all thy justice: let thy wrath and thy indignation be turned away, I beseech thee, from thy city Jerusalem, and from thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and thy people are a reproach to all that are round about us.

¹⁷ Now therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of thy servant, and his prayers: and shew thy face upon thy sanctuary which is desolate, for thy own sake.

¹⁸ Incline, O my God, thy ear, and hear: open thy eyes, and see our desolation, and the city upon which thy name is called: for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before thy face, but for the multitude of thy tender mercies.

¹⁹ O Lord, hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken and do: delay not for thy own sake, O my God: because thy name is invocated upon thy city, and upon thy people.

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us.

²⁰ But you have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things.

²¹ I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth.

²² Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son.

²³ Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning, abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.

²⁵ And this is the promise which he hath promised us, life everlasting.