Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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

¹⁵ “And I will give her 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 on the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ “And at that time,” says the LORD, “you shall call me Ishi, and shall no longer call me Baali.

¹⁷ “For I will take the names of Baal out of her mouth. And they shall no longer be remembered by their names.

¹⁸ “And on that day, I will make a Covenant for them with the wild beasts, and with the birds of the heaven, and with that which creeps upon the earth. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle from the Earth and will make them sleep safely.

¹⁹ “And I will marry you to Me forever. Yea, I will marry you to Me in righteousness and in judgment and in mercy and in compassion.

²⁰ “I will even marry you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

103 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me! Praise His Holy Name!

² Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!

³ Who forgives all your iniquity and heals all your infirmities.

⁴ Who redeems your life from the grave and crowns you with mercy and compassions.

⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things; and your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed.

⁷ He made His ways known to Moses and His works to the children of Israel.

⁸ The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.

⁹ He will not always strive with us; nor will He keep His anger forever.

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

¹¹ For as high as the heaven is above the Earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.

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

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

²² Praise the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion! My soul, praise the LORD!

3 Do we begin to praise ourselves again? Or do we need, as some others, letters of recommendation to you, or of recommendation from you?

² You are our letter, written in our hearts, which is understood and read by all mankind;

³ in that you appear to be the letter of Christ, ministered by us, and written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through Christ toward God.

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

⁶ Who has also 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 Then He went forth again toward the sea. And all the people followed Him, and He taught them.

¹⁴ And as Jesus passed by, He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sit at the tax collector’s table. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he arose and followed Him.

¹⁵ And it happened that, as Jesus sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners also sat at table with Jesus and His disciples. For there were many who followed Him.

¹⁶ And when the Scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with them?”

¹⁷ Now when Jesus heard it, He said to them, “The healthy have no need of the Physician, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners, to repentance.”

¹⁸ And the disciples of John and the Pharisees fasted, and came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, and Your disciples do not?”

¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “Can the children of the marriage chamber 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 from them. And then shall they fast, in those days.

²¹ “Also no one sows a piece of new cloth in an old garment. For the new piece that filled it up will take away somewhat from the old. And the breach is worse.

²² “Likewise, no one puts new wine into old vessels. For the new wine will break the vessels, and the wine will run out, and the vessels are lost. But new wine must be put into new vessels.”