Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁴ ¶ Therefore, behold, I will induce her and bring her into the wilderness and speak unto her heart.

¹⁵ And I will give her vineyards from there, 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 time, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me My Husband, and shalt no longer call me Baali.

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

¹⁸ And in that time I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of the heaven and with the serpents of the earth; and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle of the earth and will cause them to sleep safely.

¹⁹ And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in mercy.

²⁰ I will even betroth thee unto me in faith: and thou shalt know the LORD.

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the name of his holiness.

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

³ Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases;

⁴ who redeems thy life from destruction; who crowns thee with mercy and compassion;

⁵ who satisfies thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ ¶ The LORD executes righteousness and justice unto all that suffer violence.

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

⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

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

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

¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth so does he increase his mercy over those that fear him.

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

¹³ Like as a father has mercy upon his children, so the LORD has mercy upon those that fear him.

²² Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

3 ¶ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

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

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,

⁶ ¶ who also has made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

¹³ ¶ And he went again unto the sea; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

¹⁵ And it came to pass, that as Jesus sat at the table in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also at the table together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many and they had followed him.

¹⁶ And the scribes and Pharisees, seeing him eat with publicans and sinners, said unto his disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?

¹⁷ When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.

¹⁸ ¶ And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees did fast and therefore came and said unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?

¹⁹ And Jesus said unto them, Can those who are in a wedding fast while 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 one mends an old garment with a new piece of cloth, or else the new piece that filled it up tears away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

²² And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are lost; but new wine must be poured into new wineskins.