Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
CAPH.
81 ¶ My soul faints with desire for thy salvation as I await thy word.
82 Mine eyes fail for thy spoken word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
83 ¶ For I am become like a wine skin in the smoke; yet I have not forgotten thy statutes.
84 ¶ How many are the days of thy slave? When wilt thou execute judgment on those that persecute me?
85 ¶ The proud have dug pits for me, but they do not proceed according to thy law.
86 All thy commandments are of the same truth; they persecute me wrongfully; help me.
87 They have almost consumed me upon earth, but I have not forsaken thy precepts.
88 ¶ Cause me to live according to thy mercy, so I shall keep the testimony of thy mouth.
8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Do not be rebellious like the rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee.
9 And I looked, and behold, a hand was sent unto me; and in it was the roll of a book,
10 and he spread it before me; and it was written within and without; and there was written therein lamentations and mourning and woes.
3 ¶ And he said unto me, Son of man, eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. I ate it and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
4 Then he said unto me, Son of man, go and enter into the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
5 For thou art not sent to a people of a profound speech nor of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 not to many peoples of profound speech nor of hard language, whose words thou can not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
7 But the house of Israel will not desire to hear; for they do not desire to hear me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As diamond harder than flint I have made thy forehead: do not fear them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.
11 And go, and enter in among the captives, unto the sons of thy people, and thou shalt speak unto them, and tell them, Thus hath the Lord GOD said, They will not hear, nor forbear.
16 ¶ I say again, Let no one think me a fool if otherwise, receive me as a fool, that I may yet glory a little.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of glory.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
20 For ye suffer it if anyone brings you into bondage, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes of you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone smites you on the face.
21 I speak as concerning the reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit in that in which another is bold, (I speak foolishly), I am bold also.
22 ¶ Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more, in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.
24 Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck, night and day I have been in the deep;
26 in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by those of my nation, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, my daily combat is the welfare of all the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}
29 Who is sick, and I am not sick? who stumbles, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knows that I do not lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me;
33 and through a window in a basket I was let down by the wall and escaped his hands.
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