Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁹ But be not afar off, O LORD, My strength. Hasten to help Me.

²⁰ Deliver My soul from the sword, my desolate soul from the power of the dog.

²¹ Save Me from the lion’s mouth; and answer Me in saving Me from the horns of the unicorns.

²² I will declare Your Name to My brothers. In the midst of the Congregation will I praise You.

²³ Praise the LORD, you who fear Him! Magnify Him, all the seed of Jacob; and fear Him, all the seed of Israel!

²⁴ For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor. Nor has He hidden His face from Him, but when He called to Him, He heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of You in the great Congregation. I will perform My vows before those who fear Him.

²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek after the LORD shall praise Him. Your heart shall live forever.

²⁷ All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before You.

²⁸ For the Kingdom is the LORD’s; and He rules among the nations.

57 The righteous perishes, and no man considers it in his heart. And merciful men are taken away, and no man understands that the righteous is taken away from evil.

² Peace shall come. They shall rest in their beds whose path is straight.

³ “But you, witches’ children, come here, the seed of the adulterer and of the whore.

⁴ “Of whom do you make sport? Upon whom have you gaped and thrust out your tongue? Are not you rebellious children, a false seed,

⁵ “inflamed with idols under every green tree and sacrificing the children in the valleys under the tops of the rocks?

⁶ “Your portion is in the smooth stones of the river. They, they are your lot. To them have you poured a drink offering. You have offered a sacrifice. Should I delight in these?

⁷ “You have made your bed upon a very high mountain. You went up there, even there, to offer sacrifice.

⁸ “You have also set up your remembrance behind the doors and posts. For you have uncovered yourself to one other than Me, and gone up, enlarged your bed, and made a covenant between yourself and them, and loved their bed in every place where you saw it.

⁹ “You went to the kings with oil and increased your ointments, sent your messengers far off, and humbled yourself into Hell.

¹⁰ “You wearied yourself in your manifold journeys. You did not say, ‘There is no hope.’ You have found life by your hand. Therefore you were not grieved.

¹¹ “And whom did you reverence or fear, seeing you have lied to Me, and have not remembered Me, or set your mind thereon? Is it not because I hold My peace, and for a long time, that you do not fear Me?

¹² “I will declare your righteousness and your works, and they shall not profit you.

¹³ “When you cry, let those whom you have gathered together deliver you. But the wind shall take them all away. Vanity shall pull them away. But he who trusts in Me shall inherit the land and shall possess My Holy Mountain.

¹⁵ Brothers, I speak as man does: Though it be but man’s covenant, when it is confirmed, no one ignores it, or adds anything to it.

¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, “and to the seeds”, as speaking of many, but, “And to your seed”, as of one, which is Christ.

¹⁷ And this I say, that the covenant that was previously confirmed by God in Christ, cannot be annulled by the Law, which was four hundred and thirty years after; so that it should make the promise of no effect.

¹⁸ For if the inheritance is of the Law, it is no more by the promise. But God gave it freely to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹ Why, then, the Law? It was added because of the transgressions; till the seed came, to which the promise was made. And it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator.

²⁰ However, there is no Mediator of one. But God is one.

²¹ Is the Law, then, against the promises of God? Never may it be! For if there had been a Law given which could have given life, surely righteousness should have been by the Law.

²² But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise, by faith in Jesus Christ, should be given to those who believe.