Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy
more than any of your companions.
8 Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume all your garments.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.
9 Daughters of kings are among your honored attendants.
The royal wife[a] stands at your right hand in gold from Ophir.
The Beauty of the Bride
10 Hear, O daughter, look and listen.
Forget your people and your father’s house,
11 because the king desires your beauty.
Because he is your lord, bow down to him.
12 Then the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift.
The richest people will seek your favor.
13 The princess, who waits inside, is all glorious.
Her dress is interwoven with gold.
14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king.
Virgins who follow her as attendants are brought to you.
15 They are brought with joyful celebration.
They enter the palace of the king.
The Glory of the King’s Children
16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers.
You will make them princes in all the earth.
17 I will preserve the memory of your name through all generations.
Therefore peoples will praise you forever and ever.
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your guilt.
2 Take words with you[a] and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our guilt,
and receive us graciously,
and let us present the fruit of our lips as bulls.[b]
3 Assyria cannot save us.
We will not ride on horses.
We will no longer call the work of our hands our gods!
For in you the fatherless child finds compassion.”
4 I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be refreshing like dew to Israel.
It will blossom like a lily.
It will take root like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 Its young shoots will sprout.
Its beauty will be like an olive tree.
Its fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Those who live in Israel’s shade will once again grow grain.
They will blossom like a grape vine.
Its fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, how much more do I have to put up with from idols?
I am the one who has answered, and I look after him.
I am like a fresh fir tree.
Your fruit comes from me.
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things.
Who is discerning? Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.
Bear With Me
11 I wish that you would be patient with me in regard to a little foolishness—but you are already being patient with me. 2 You see, I am jealous about you, with a godly jealousy, because I promised to present you as a pure virgin to one husband, Christ. 3 But I am afraid that somehow, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning, so also your minds might be led astray from a sincere[a] and pure devotion to Christ. 4 In fact, if someone comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you accept a different spirit, which you did not accept before, or a different “gospel,” which you did not welcome before, you put up with it all too well. 5 I do not think that I am in any way inferior to the “super-apostles.” 6 But even if I am an amateur in speech, yet I am not an amateur in knowledge. No, in everything we have clearly demonstrated that to you in every way.
7 Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself, so that you would be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches, by receiving support from them to minister to you! 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I did not burden anyone, because when the brothers came from Macedonia, they supplied what I needed. In every way I kept myself from ever being a burden to you, and I will continue to do so. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting about me will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. 12 But what I am doing, and will continue to do, is being done in order to cut off the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to boast that they should be considered equal to us.
13 In fact, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 So it is no great surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their works.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.