Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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

¹⁵ And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.

¹⁷ And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.

¹⁸ And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.

¹⁹ And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.

²⁰ And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

103 For David himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, thou art exceedingly great. Thou hast put on praise and beauty:

² And art clothed with light as with a garment. Who stretchest out the heaven like a pavilion:

³ Who coverest the higher rooms thereof with water. Who makest the clouds thy chariot: who walkest upon the wings of the winds.

⁴ Who makest thy angels spirits: and thy ministers a burning fire.

⁵ Who hast founded the earth upon its own bases: it shall not be moved for ever and ever.

⁶ The deep like a garment is its clothing: above the mountains shall the waters stand.

⁷ At thy rebuke they shall flee: at the voice of thy thunder they shall fear.

⁸ The mountains ascend, and the plains descend into the place which thou hast founded for them.

⁹ Thou hast set a bound which they shall not pass over; neither shall they return to cover the earth.

¹⁰ Thou sendest forth springs in the vales: between the midst of the hills the waters shall pass.

¹¹ All the beasts of the field shall drink: the wild asses shall expect in their thirst.

¹² Over them the birds of the air shall dwell: from the midst of the rocks they shall give forth their voices.

¹³ Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms: the earth shall be filled with the fruit of thy works:

²² The sun ariseth, and they are gathered together: and they shall lie down in their dens.

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you, or from you?

² You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men:

³ Being manifested, that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.

⁴ And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God.

⁵ Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God.

⁶ Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth.

¹³ And he went forth again to the sea side; and all the multitude came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ And when he was passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheus sitting at the receipt of custom; and he saith to him: Follow me. And rising up, he followed him.

¹⁵ And it came to pass, that as he sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat down together with Jesus and his disciples. For they were many, who also followed him.

¹⁶ And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with publicans and sinners, said to his disciples: Why doth your master eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

¹⁷ Jesus hearing this, saith to them: They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. For I came not to call the just, but sinners.

¹⁸ And the disciples of John and the Pharisees used to fast; and they come and say to him: Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast; but thy disciples do not fast?

¹⁹ And Jesus saith to them: Can the children of the marriage fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; and then they shall fast in those days.

²¹ No man seweth a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent.

²² And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles.