Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ O God, Your throne is forever and ever. You rule Your holy nation by what is right. ⁷ You have loved what is right and good. You have hated what is wrong. That is why God, Your God, has chosen You. He has poured over You the oil of joy more than over anyone else. ⁸ All Your clothes smell of fine perfumes. Out of ivory palaces music of strings have made You glad. ⁹ Daughters of kings are among Your women of honor. At Your right hand stands the queen, wearing gold from Ophir.

¹⁰ Listen, O daughter, hear my words and think about them. Forget your people and your father’s house. ¹¹ Then the King will desire your beauty. Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him. ¹² And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift. The rich people will ask for your favor.

¹³ The daughter of the King is beautiful within. Her clothes are made with gold. ¹⁴ She will be led to the King in clothes sewed for beauty. The young women who have never had men are her friends. They follow her and will be brought to You. ¹⁵ They will be led in with joy and happiness, because they will come into the King’s palace.

¹⁶ Instead of Your fathers, it will be Your sons whom You will make rulers over all the earth. ¹⁷ I will make Your name to be remembered to all the children-to-come. So that the nations will honor You forever and ever.

Israel Will Return to the Lord Their God

3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again and love your wife, even when she is loved by another and is not faithful. Love her as the Lord loves the people of Israel, even when they turn to other gods and love cakes of dried grapes.” ² So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver money and ten baskets of barley. ³ Then I said to her, “You must stay with me for many days, and be faithful to me. Do not have another man, and I will also be faithful to you.” ⁴ For the sons of Israel will live many days without a king or leader, without holy gifts or holy stone pillars, and without linen vests or false gods. ⁵ After this the sons of Israel will return and look for the Lord their God and for David their king. And they will come shaking before the Lord and receive His goodness in the last days.

²³ I call on God to look into my heart. The reason I did not come to the city of Corinth was because I did not want my strong words to hurt you. ²⁴ We are not the boss of your faith but we are working with you to make you happy. Your faith is strong.

2 As I thought about it, I decided I would not come to you again. It would only make you sad. ² If I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? How can you make me happy if I make you sad? ³ That is why I wrote that letter to you. I did not want to visit you and be made sad by the ones who should be making me happy. I am sure when I am happy, you are happy also. ⁴ I wrote you with a troubled heart. Tears were coming from my eyes. I did not want to make you sad. I wanted you to know how much I loved you.

Forgiving a Christian

⁵ If someone among you has brought sorrow, he has not made me as sad as he has all of you. I say this so I may not make it hard for you. ⁶ Most of you have punished him. That is enough for such a person. ⁷ Now you should forgive him and comfort him. If you do not, he will be so sad that he will want to give up. ⁸ I ask you to show him you do love him. ⁹ This is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you to see if you were willing to obey in all things. ¹⁰ If you forgive a man, I forgive him also. If I have forgiven anything, I have done it because of you. Christ sees me as I forgive. ¹¹ We forgive so that Satan will not win. We know how he works!