Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²² Thus said the Lord Jehovah: I have taken of the foliage of the high cedar, And I have set [it], From the top of its tender shoots a tender one I crop, And I -- I have planted [it] on a mountain high and lofty.

²³ In a mountain -- the high place of Israel, I plant it, And it hath borne boughs, and yielded fruit, And become a goodly cedar, And dwelt under it have all birds of every wing, In the shade of its thin shoots they dwell.

²⁴ And known have all trees of the field That I, Jehovah, have made low the high tree, I have set on high the low tree, I have dried up the moist tree, And I have caused the dry tree to flourish, I, Jehovah, have spoken, and have done [it]!'

92 A Psalm. -- A Song for the sabbath-day. Good to give thanks to Jehovah, And to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High,

² To declare in the morning Thy kindness, And Thy faithfulness in the nights.

³ On ten strings and on psaltery, On higgaion, with harp.

⁴ For Thou hast caused me to rejoice, O Jehovah, in Thy work, Concerning the works of Thy hands I sing.

¹² The righteous as a palm-tree flourisheth, As a cedar in Lebanon he groweth.

¹³ Those planted in the house of Jehovah, In the courts of our God do flourish.

¹⁴ Still they bring forth in old age, Fat and flourishing are they,

¹⁵ To declare that upright [is] Jehovah my rock, And there is no perverseness in Him!

⁶ having courage, then, at all times, and knowing that being at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord, --

⁷ for through faith we walk, not through sight --

⁸ we have courage, and are well pleased rather to be away from the home of the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

⁹ Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well pleasing to him,

¹⁰ for all of us it behoveth to be manifested before the tribunal of the Christ, that each one may receive the things [done] through the body, in reference to the things that he did, whether good or evil;

¹¹ having known, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and to God we are manifested, and I hope also in your consciences to have been manifested;

¹² for not again ourselves do we recommend to you, but we are giving occasion to you of glorifying in our behalf, that ye may have [something] in reference to those glorifying in face and not in heart;

¹³ for whether we were beside ourselves, [it was] to God; whether we be of sound mind -- [it is] to you,

¹⁴ for the love of the Christ doth constrain us, having judged thus: that if one for all died, then the whole died,

¹⁵ and for all he died, that those living, no more to themselves may live, but to him who died for them, and was raised again.

¹⁶ So that we henceforth have known no one according to the flesh, and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no more;

¹⁷ so that if any one [is] in Christ -- [he is] a new creature; the old things did pass away, lo, become new have the all things.

²⁶ And he said, `Thus is the reign of God: as if a man may cast the seed on the earth,

²⁷ and may sleep, and may rise night and day, and the seed spring up and grow, he hath not known how;

²⁸ for of itself doth the earth bear fruit, first a blade, afterwards an ear, afterwards full corn in the ear;

²⁹ and whenever the fruit may yield itself, immediately he doth send forth the sickle, because the harvest hath come.'

³⁰ And he said, `To what may we liken the reign of God, or in what simile may we compare it?

³¹ As a grain of mustard, which, whenever it may be sown on the earth, is less than any of the seeds that are on the earth;

³² and whenever it may be sown, it cometh up, and doth become greater than any of the herbs, and doth make great branches, so that under its shade the fowls of the heaven are able to rest.'

³³ And with many such similes he was speaking to them the word, as they were able to hear,

³⁴ and without a simile he was not speaking to them, and by themselves, to his disciples he was expounding all.