Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

⁷ You love righteousness, uprightness, and right standing with God and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows.^(A)

⁸ Your garments are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia; stringed instruments make You glad.

⁹ Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women; at Your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, consider, submit, and consent to my instruction: forget also your own people and your father’s house;

¹¹ So will the King desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, be submissive and reverence and honor Him.

¹² And, O daughter of Tyre, the richest of the people shall entreat your favor with a gift.

¹³ The King’s daughter in the inner part [of the palace] is all glorious; her clothing is inwrought with gold.^(B)

¹⁴ She shall be brought to the King in raiment of needlework; with the virgins, her companions that follow her, she shall be brought to You.

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

¹⁶ Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, whom You will make princes in all the land.

¹⁷ I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore shall the people praise and give You thanks forever and ever.

62 For Zion’s sake will I [Isaiah] not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until her imputed righteousness and vindication go forth as brightness, and her salvation radiates as does a burning torch.

² And the nations shall see your righteousness and vindication [your rightness and justice—not your own, but His ascribed to you], and all kings shall behold your salvation and glory; and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name.^(A)

³ You shall also be [so beautiful and prosperous as to be thought of as] a crown of glory and honor in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem [exceedingly beautiful] in the hand of your God.

⁴ You [Judah] shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land be called Desolate any more. But you shall be called Hephzibah [My delight is in her], and your land be called Beulah [married]; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married [owned and protected by the Lord].

⁵ For as a young man marries a virgin [O Jerusalem], so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

²² After this, Jesus and His disciples went into the land (the countryside) of Judea, where He remained with them, and baptized.

²³ But John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, for there was an abundance of water there, and the people kept coming and being baptized.

²⁴ For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵ Therefore there arose a controversy between some of John’s disciples and a Jew in regard to purification.

²⁶ So they came to John and reported to him, Rabbi, the Man Who was with you on the other side of the Jordan [^[a]at the Jordan crossing]—and to Whom you yourself have borne testimony—notice, here He is baptizing too, and everybody is flocking to Him!

²⁷ John answered, A man can receive nothing [he can claim nothing, he can ^[b]take unto himself nothing] except as it has been granted to him from heaven. [A man must be content to receive the gift which is given him from heaven; there is no other source.]

²⁸ You yourselves are my witnesses [you personally bear me out] that I stated, I am not the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), but I have [only] been sent before Him [in advance of Him, to be His appointed forerunner, His messenger, His announcer].^(A)

²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the groomsman who stands by and listens to him rejoices greatly and heartily on account of the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my pleasure and joy, and it is now complete.^(B)

³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.]^(C)

³¹ He Who comes from above (heaven) is [far] above all [others]; he who comes from the earth belongs to the earth, and talks the language of earth [his words are from an earthly standpoint]. He Who comes from heaven is [far] above all others [far superior to all others in prominence and in excellence].

³² It is to what He has [actually] seen and heard that He bears testimony, and yet no one accepts His testimony [no one receives His evidence as true].

³³ Whoever receives His testimony has set his seal of approval to this: God is true. [That man has definitely certified, acknowledged, declared once and for all, and is himself assured that it is divine truth that God cannot lie].

³⁴ For since He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God [proclaims God’s own message], God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!^(D)

³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given (entrusted, committed) everything into His hand.^(E)

³⁶ And he who believes in (has faith in, clings to, relies on) the Son has (now possesses) eternal life. But whoever disobeys (is unbelieving toward, refuses to trust in, disregards, is not subject to) the Son will never see (experience) life, but [instead] the wrath of God abides on him. [God’s displeasure remains on him; His indignation hangs over him continually.]^(F)