Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

120 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.

² Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.

³ What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

⁴ Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper!

⁵ Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

⁶ My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.

⁷ I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,

² “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia: ‘The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³ Who is there among you of all His people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is the God), which is in Jerusalem.

⁴ And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts, besides the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.’”

⁵ Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.

⁶ And all those who were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.

⁷ Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put them in the house of his gods;

⁸ even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them over to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

⁹ And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives,

¹⁰ thirty basins of gold, four hundred and ten silver basins of a second sort, and other vessels a thousand.

¹¹ All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with those of the captivity, who were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

¹² For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience: that we have had our discourse in the world, and more abundantly toward you, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God in simplicity and godly sincerity.

¹³ For we write no other things unto you than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end,

¹⁴ as ye also have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the Day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ And in this confidence, I was minded to come unto you before this, that ye might have a second benefit:

¹⁶ to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come again to you on my way out of Macedonia, and be sent by you on my way toward Judea.

¹⁷ When therefore I was thus minded, did I decide lightly? Or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be “yea, yea” and “nay, nay”?

¹⁸ But as God is true, our word toward you was not “yea” and “nay.”

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not “yea” and “nay,” but in Him was “yea.”