Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²² Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also take of the highest branch of the lofty cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of its young shoots a tender one, and I will plant it upon a high and eminent mountain:

²³ upon the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth branches, and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.

²⁴ And all the trees of the field shall know that I Jehovah have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and made the dry tree to flourish: I Jehovah have spoken, and will do [it].

A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day.

92 It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High;

² To declare thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness in the nights,

³ Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the lute; upon the Higgaion with the harp.

⁴ For thou, Jehovah, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

¹² The righteous shall shoot forth like a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon.

¹³ Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God:

¹⁴ They are still vigorous in old age, they are full of sap and green;

¹⁵ To shew that Jehovah is upright: [he is] my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

⁶ Therefore [we are] always confident, and know that while present in the body we are absent from the Lord,

⁷ (for we walk by faith, not by sight;)

⁸ we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

⁹ Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him.

¹⁰ For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things [done] in the body, according to those he has done, whether [it be] good or evil.

¹¹ Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but have been manifested to God, and I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences.

¹² [For] we do not again commend ourselves to you, but [we are] giving to you occasion of boast in our behalf, that ye may have [such] with those boasting in countenance, and not in heart.

¹³ For whether we are beside ourselves, [it is] to God; or are sober, [it is] for you.

¹⁴ For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died;

¹⁵ and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised.

¹⁶ So that *we* henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know [him thus] no longer.

¹⁷ So if any one [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

²⁶ And he said, Thus is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast the seed upon the earth,

²⁷ and should sleep and rise up night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he does not know how.

²⁸ The earth bears fruit of itself, first [the] blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear.

²⁹ But when the fruit is produced, immediately he sends the sickle, for the harvest is come.

³⁰ And he said, How should we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison should we compare it?

³¹ As to a grain of mustard [seed], which, when it is sown upon the earth, is less than all seeds which are upon the earth,

³² and when it has been sown, mounts up and becomes greater than all herbs, and produces great branches, so that the birds of heaven can roost under its shadow.

³³ And with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear,

³⁴ but without a parable spoke he not to them; and in private he explained all things to his disciples.