Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁴ Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart.

¹⁵ And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, [that] thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali;

¹⁷ for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

¹⁸ And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely.

¹⁹ And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;

²⁰ and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Jehovah.

[A Psalm] of David.

103 Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name!

² Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

³ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases;

⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from the pit, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;

⁵ Who satisfieth thine old age with good [things]; thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ Jehovah executeth righteousness and justice for all that are oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

⁸ Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness.

⁹ He will not always chide, neither will he keep [his anger] for ever.

¹⁰ He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving-kindness toward them that fear him.

¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father pitieth [his] children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.

²² Bless Jehovah, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless Jehovah, O my soul!

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some, commendatory letters to you, or [commendatory] from you?

² *Ye* are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read of all men,

³ being manifested to be Christ's epistle ministered by us, written, not with ink, but [the] Spirit of [the] living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of [the] heart.

⁴ And such confidence have we through the Christ towards God:

⁵ not that we are competent of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our competency [is] of God;

⁶ who has also made us competent, [as] ministers of [the] new covenant; not of letter, but of spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens.

¹³ And he went out again by the sea, and all the crowd came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ And passing by, he saw Levi the [son] of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-office, and says to him, Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.

¹⁵ And it came to pass as he lay at table in his house, that many tax-gatherers and sinners lay at table with Jesus and his disciples; for they were many, and they followed him.

¹⁶ And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing him eating with sinners and tax-gatherers, said to his disciples, Why [is it] that he eats and drinks with tax-gatherers and sinners?

¹⁷ And Jesus having heard [it] says to them, They that are strong have not need of a physician, but those who are ill. I have not come to call righteous [men], but sinners.

¹⁸ And the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting; and they come and say to him, Why do the disciples of John and [the disciples] of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?

¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, Can the sons of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

²⁰ But days will come when the bridegroom shall have been taken away from them, and then shall they fast in that day.

²¹ No one sews a patch of new cloth on an old garment: otherwise its new filling-up takes from the old [stuff], and there is a worse rent.

²² And no one puts new wine into old skins; otherwise the wine bursts the skins, and the wine is poured out, and the skins will be destroyed; but new wine is to be put into new skins.