Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

66 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands!

² Sing forth the honor of His name; make His praise glorious.

³ Say unto God, “How fearsome art Thou in Thy works! Through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee.

⁴ All the earth shall worship Thee and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name.” Selah

⁵ Come and see the works of God; He is fearsome in His doings toward the children of men.

⁶ He turned the sea into dry land, they went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoice in Him.

⁷ He ruleth by His power for ever, His eyes behold the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

⁸ O bless our God, ye people; and make the voice of His praise to be heard,

⁹ who holdeth our soul in life and alloweth not our feet to be moved.

⁴⁷ therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸ Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon, for the despoilers shall come unto her from the north,” saith the Lord.

⁴⁹ As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

⁵⁰ Ye that have escaped the sword, go away; stand not still. Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹ We are confounded because we have heard reproach; shame hath covered our faces, for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’S house.

⁵² “Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that I will do judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³ Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall despoilers come unto her,” saith the Lord.

⁵⁴ A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

⁵⁵ because the Lord hath despoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice. When her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered,

⁵⁶ because the despoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken; every one of their bows is broken. For the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite.

⁵⁷ “And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,” saith the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.

⁵⁸ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire; and they shall be weary.”

8 Moreover, brethren, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia:

² how in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

³ For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing to give of themselves,

⁴ praying us with earnest entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of ministering to the saints.

⁵ And this they did, not as we had hoped, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God,

⁶ insomuch that we urged Titus that, as he had begun, so he would finish in you the same grace also.

⁷ Therefore as ye abound in everything — in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us — see that ye abound in this grace also.