Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ ¶ Thy throne, O God, is eternal and for ever, the rod of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

⁷ Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

⁸ All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made thee glad.

⁹ Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women; the queen stands at thy right hand with a crown of gold from Ophir.

¹⁰ ¶ Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;

¹¹ so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; and bow before him, for he is thy Lord.

¹² And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.

¹³ The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

¹⁴ She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.

¹⁵ With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king’s palace.

¹⁶ Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons, whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth.

¹⁷ I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall the people praise thee eternally and for ever.

14 ¶ O Israel, become converted unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

² Take with you words, and be converted unto the LORD; say unto him, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips.

³ Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless finds mercy.

⁴ ¶ I will heal their rebellion; I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them.

⁵ I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall flourish as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

⁶ His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

⁷ Those that shall sit under his shadow shall return; they shall be given life as the wheat, and they shall flourish as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

⁸ ¶ Ephraim shall then say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him and gaze upon him; I will be unto him like a green fir tree; of me shall thy fruit be found.

⁹ Who is wise that he might understand this? and prudent that he might know this? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the rebellious shall fall therein.

11 ¶ I wish ye could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me.

² For I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ.

³ But I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve through his craftiness, so your senses should be corrupted in some way, and ye should fall from the simplicity that is in the Christ.

⁴ Therefore if anyone comes preaching another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit from that which ye have received or another gospel from that which ye have accepted, ye bear well with it.

⁵ ¶ I reckon that I have not been inferior in any way to those grandiose apostles.

⁶ But though I am rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.

⁷ Have I committed an offence in humbling myself that ye might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?

⁸ I deprived the other congregations, {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} taking wages of them, to do you service.

⁹ And when I was present with you and had need, I was not a burden to any of you, for that which was lacking to me was supplied by the brethren which came from Macedonia; and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

¹⁰ It is the truth of Christ in me that this glory shall not be sealed up unto me in the regions of Achaia.

¹¹ Why? because I do not love you? God knows.

¹² But what I do, I will continue to do that I may take away the occasion from those who desire it to be found like unto us in that in which they glory.

¹³ For these false apostles are deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

¹⁴ And it is no marvel, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.