Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

66 Rejoice in God, all the Earth!

² Sing forth the Glory of His Name! Make His praise glorious!

³ Say to God, “How terrible are You in Your works! Through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies be in subjection to You.

⁴ “All the world shall worship You and sing to You. Sing of Your Name!” Selah.

⁵ Come and behold the works of God. He is terrible in His doings toward the sons of men.

⁶ He has turned the sea into dry land. They passed through the river on foot. We rejoiced in Him there.

⁷ He rules the world with His power. His eyes behold the nations. The rebellious shall not exalt themselves. Selah.

⁸ Praise our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise heard.

⁹ He holds our souls in life and does not let our feet slip.

⁴⁷ ‘Therefore, behold, the days come that I will bring judgment upon the images of Babel. And the whole land shall be ashamed; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸ ‘Then the heavens and the Earth, and all that is in them, shall rejoice for Babel. For the destroyers shall come to her from the North,’ says the LORD.”

⁴⁹ As Babel caused the slain of Israel to fall, so by Babel the slain of all the Earth fell.

⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, go away! Do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away; and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹ We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the Sanctuaries of the LORD’s House.

⁵² “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will visit her carved images. And the wounded shall groan throughout all her land.

⁵³ “Even if Babel were to mount up to the heavens, and even if she were to defend her strength on high, her destroyers shall still come from Me,” says the LORD.

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

⁵⁵ because the LORD has laid Babel waste and destroyed her great voice. And her waves shall roar like great waters. A sound was made by their noise

⁵⁶ because the destroyer has come upon her (upon Babel) and her strong men are taken; their bows are broken. For the LORD God, Who repays, shall surely repay.

⁵⁷ “And I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men, her dukes, and her nobles, and her strong men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake,” says the King, Whose Name is the LORD of Hosts.

⁵⁸ Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “The thick wall of Babel shall be broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, for they shall be weary.”

8 We also make known to you, brothers, the grace of God bestowed upon the Churches of Macedonia.

² Because, in great trial of affliction, their joy abounded, and their most extreme poverty abounded unto their rich generosity.

³ For to their power I bear record. Yea, and beyond their power they were willing.

⁴ And asked us with great instance to receive the grace and fellowship of the ministry which is toward the Saints.

⁵ And this they did, not as we expected; but gave themselves, first to the Lord, and afterwards to us, by the will of God;

⁶ that we should exhort Titus to accomplish the same grace among you which he had begun.

⁷ Therefore, as you abound in everything - in faith and Word and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love towards us - see that you also abound in this grace.