Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 (5) Your arrows are sharp. The people fall under you,
as they penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies.
7 (6) Your throne, God, will last forever and ever;
you rule your kingdom with a scepter of equity.
8 (7) You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of joy in preference to your companions.
9 (8) Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia;
from ivory palaces stringed instruments bring you joy.
10 (9) Daughters of kings are among your favorites;
at your right stands the queen in gold from Ofir.
11 (10) Listen, daughter! Think, pay attention!
Forget your own people and your father’s house,
12 (11) and the king will desire your beauty;
for he is your lord, so honor him.
13 (12) Then the daughter of Tzor, the richest of peoples,
will court your favor with gifts.
14 (13) Inside [the palace], the king’s daughter looks splendid,
attired in checker-work embroidered with gold.
15 (14) In brocade, she will be led to the king,
to you, with the virgins in her retinue.
16 (15) They will be led in with gladness and joy,
they will enter the king’s palace.
17 (16) You will have sons to succeed your ancestors;
you will make them princes in all the land.
14 (13:16) Shomron will bear her guilt,
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their little ones will be dashed to pieces
and their pregnant women ripped open.
2 (1) Return, Isra’el, to Adonai your God,
for your guilt has made you stumble.
3 (2) Take words with you, and return to Adonai;
say to him, “Forgive all guilt,
and accept what is good;
we will pay instead of bulls
[the offerings of] our lips.
4 (3) Ashur will not save us,
we will not ride on horses,
and we will no longer call
what we made with our hands our gods.
For it is only in you
that the fatherless can find mercy.”
5 (4) “I will heal their disloyalty,
I will love them freely;
for my anger has turned from him.
6 (5) I will be like dew to Isra’el;
he will blossom like a lily
and strike roots like the L’vanon.
7 (6) His branches will spread out,
his beauty be like an olive tree
and his fragrance like the L’vanon.
8 (7) Again they will live in his shade and raise grain;
they will blossom like a vine,
and its aroma will be
like the wine of the L’vanon.
9 (8) Efrayim [will say], ‘What have I
to do any more with idols?’
And I, I answer and affirm him;
I am like a fresh, green cypress tree;
your fruitfulness comes from me.”
10 (9) Let the wise understand these things,
and let the discerning know them.
For the ways of Adonai are straight,
And the righteous walk in them,
but in them sinners stumble.
11 I would like you to bear with me in a little foolishness — please do bear with me! 2 For I am jealous for you with God’s kind of jealousy; since I promised to present you as a pure virgin in marriage to your one husband, the Messiah; 3 and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness. 4 For if someone comes and tells you about some other Yeshua than the one we told you about, or if you receive a spirit different from the one you received or accept some so-called “good news” different from the Good News you already accepted, you bear with him well enough! 5 For I don’t consider myself in any way inferior to these “super-emissaries.” 6 I may not be a skilled speaker, but I do have the knowledge; anyhow, we have made this clear to you in every way and in every circumstance.
7 Or did I sin in humbling myself so that you could be exalted, in proclaiming God’s Good News to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other congregations by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and had needs, I did not burden anyone: my needs were met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In nothing have I been a burden to you, nor will I be. 10 The truthfulness of the Messiah is in me, so that this boast concerning me is not going to be silenced anywhere in Achaia. 11 Why won’t I ever accept your support? Is it that I don’t love you? God knows I do! 12 No, I do it — and will go on doing it — in order to cut the ground from under those who want an excuse to boast that they work the same way we do. 13 The fact is that such men are pseudo-emissaries: they tell lies about their work and masquerade as emissaries of the Messiah. 14 There is nothing surprising in that, for the Adversary himself masquerades as an angel of light; 15 so it’s no great thing if his workers masquerade as servants of righteousness. They will meet the end their deeds deserve.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.