Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the chief Musician: an instruction. Of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.

52 Why boastest thou thyself in evil, thou mighty man? The loving-kindness of God [abideth] continually.

² Thy tongue deviseth mischievous things, like a sharp razor, practising deceit.

³ Thou hast loved evil rather than good, lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

⁴ Thou hast loved all devouring words, O deceitful tongue!

⁵ God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

⁶ The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,]

⁷ Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice.

⁸ But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I will confide in the loving-kindness of God for ever and ever.

⁹ I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done [it]; and I will wait on thy name, before thy godly ones, for it is good.

31 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

³ Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs.

⁴ The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets unto all the trees of the field.

⁵ Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of great waters, when he shot forth.

⁶ All the fowl of the heavens made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations.

⁷ Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters.

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

⁹ I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

¹⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, … and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

¹¹ I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

¹² And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him; upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

¹¹ See how long a letter I have written to you with my own hand.

¹² As many as desire to have a fair appearance in [the] flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.

¹³ For neither do they that are circumcised themselves keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.

¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom [the] world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

¹⁵ For [in Christ Jesus] neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.

¹⁶ And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

¹⁷ For the rest let no one trouble me, for *I* bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit, brethren. Amen.