Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 Your arrows are sharp;
peoples will cower at your feet;
the king’s enemies will lose heart.
7 Your throne, O God,[a] stands forever;(A)
your royal scepter is a scepter for justice.
8 You love justice and hate wrongdoing;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.
9 With myrrh, aloes, and cassia
your robes are fragrant.
From ivory-paneled palaces[b]
stringed instruments bring you joy.
10 Daughters of kings are your lovely wives;
a princess arrayed in Ophir’s gold[c]
comes to stand at your right hand.
III
11 Listen, my daughter, and understand;
pay me careful heed.
Forget your people and your father’s house,[d]
12 that the king might desire your beauty.
He is your lord;
13 (B)honor him, daughter of Tyre.
Then the richest of the people
will seek your favor with gifts.
14 All glorious is the king’s daughter as she enters,(C)
her raiment threaded with gold;
15 In embroidered apparel she is led to the king.
The maids of her train are presented to the king.
16 They are led in with glad and joyous acclaim;
they enter the palace of the king.
IV
17 The throne of your fathers your sons will have;
you shall make them princes through all the land.(D)
Chapter 3
Hosea and His Wife Reunited[a] 1 Again the Lord said to me:
Go, love a woman
who is loved by her spouse but commits adultery;
Just as the Lord loves the Israelites,
though they turn to other gods
and love raisin cakes.[b]
2 [c]So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 Then I said to her:
“You will wait for me for many days;
you will not prostitute yourself
Or belong to any man;
I in turn will wait for you.”
4 [d]For the Israelites will remain many days
without king or prince,
Without sacrifice or sacred pillar,
without ephod or household gods.
5 Afterward the Israelites will turn back
and seek the Lord, their God,
and David, their king;[e](A)
They will come trembling to the Lord
and to his bounty, in the last days.
Paul’s Change of Plan. 23 (A)But I call upon God as witness, on my life, that it is to spare you that I have not yet gone to Corinth.[a] 24 Not that we lord it over your faith; rather, we work together for your joy, for you stand firm in the faith.
Chapter 2
1 For I decided not to come to you again in painful circumstances. 2 For if I inflict pain upon you, then who is there to cheer me except the one pained by me? 3 And I wrote as I did[b] so that when I came I might not be pained by those in whom I should have rejoiced, confident about all of you that my joy is that of all of you. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you might be pained but that you might know the abundant love I have for you.
The Offender.[c] 5 If anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure (not to exaggerate) to all of you. 6 This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person, 7 so that on the contrary you should forgive and encourage him instead, or else the person may be overwhelmed by excessive pain.(B) 8 Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, to know your proven character, whether you were obedient in everything.(C) 10 Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we might not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not unaware of his purposes.(D)
Paul’s Anxiety.[d]
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.