Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Michtam of David.

¹ ¶ Preserve me, O God: for in thee I have put my trust.

² I said unto the LORD, Thou art my goodness: I have no goodness apart from thee;

³ to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent: all my delight is towards them.

⁴ The sorrows of those that hasten after another god shall be multiplied; their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

⁵ The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; thou dost maintain my lot.

⁶ The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I will bless the LORD, who gives me counsel: my kidneys also instruct me in the night seasons.

⁸ ¶ I have set the LORD always before me: because when he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest secure.

¹⁰ For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy Merciful One to see corruption.

¹¹ Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

²⁸ ¶ All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.

²⁹ At the end of twelve months as he was walking upon the palace of the kingdom of Babylon,

³⁰ the king spoke and said, Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the glory of my greatness?

³¹ The word was yet in the king’s mouth when there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee;

³² and they drive thee from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; and they shall feed thee as the oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most High takes rule in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he will.

³³ The same hour the word was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from among men and ate grass as the oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

³⁴ ¶ But at the end of the time I Nebuchad­nezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding was returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and glorified him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is through all ages:

³⁵ and all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing; and in the army of heaven and in the inhabitants of the earth, he does according to his will; nor is there anyone who can interfere with his hand and say unto him, What doest thou?

³⁶ In the same time my reason was returned unto me, and I turned to the majesty of my kingdom; my dignity and greatness returned unto me; and my governors and my great ones sought me; and I was restored in my kingdom, and more excellent greatness was added unto me.

³⁷ Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and build up and glorify the King of heaven because all his works are truth, and his ways judgment: and he is able to humble those that walk with arrogance.

12 ¶ And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and dug a place for the winefat {Place where grapes are tread} and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went far away.

² And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a slave that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

³ And taking him, they beat him and sent him away empty.

⁴ And again he sent unto them another slave, and casting stones at him, they wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully handled.

⁵ And again he sent another, and him they killed and many others, beating some and killing some.

⁶ Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.

⁷ But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the place shall be ours.

⁸ And taking hold of him, they killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁹ What, therefore, shall the lord of the vineyard do? He shall come and destroy those husbandmen and shall give his vineyard unto others.

¹⁰ And have ye not read this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected is placed as the head of the corner;

¹¹ This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

¹² And they sought to lay hold on him but feared the multitude, for they understood that he had spoken the parable against them, and leaving him, they went away.