Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

123 If it had not been that the Lord was with us, let Israel now say:

² If it had not been that the Lord was with us, When men rose up against us,

³ Perhaps they had swallowed us up alive. When their fury was enkindled against us,

⁴ Perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.

⁵ Our soul hath passed through a torrent: perhaps our soul had passed through a water insupportable.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us to be a prey to their teeth.

⁷ Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are delivered.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

¹⁶ Therefore, do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them: and do not withstand me: for I will not hear thee.

¹⁷ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.

¹⁹ Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their contenance?

²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my indignation was enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.

²² For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

²³ But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.

²⁴ But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward,

²⁵ From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets from day to day, rising up early and sending.

²⁶ And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers.

⁷ See the things that are according to outward appearance. If any man trust to himself, that he is Christ's, let him think this again with himself, that as he is Christ's, so are we also.

⁸ For if also I should boast somewhat more of our power, which the Lord hath given us unto edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed.

⁹ But that I may not be thought as it were to terrify you by epistles,

¹⁰ (For his epistles indeed, say they, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible,)

¹¹ Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles, when absent, such also we will be indeed when present.