Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

² Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.

³ Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.

⁴ Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.

2 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer as to my reproof.

² And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and engrave it upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it.

³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but it hasteth to the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not delay.

⁴ Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him: but the just shall live by his faith.

[A Psalm] of David.

37 Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, and be not envious of them that work unrighteousness;

² for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and fade as the green herb.

³ Confide in Jehovah, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness;

⁴ and delight thyself in Jehovah, and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.

⁵ Commit thy way unto Jehovah, and rely upon him: he will bring [it] to pass;

⁶ and he will bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

⁷ Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him that prospereth in his way, because of the man that bringeth mischievous devices to pass.

⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself: it [would be] only to do evil.

⁹ For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait on Jehovah, they shall possess the land.

1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, according to promise of life, the [life] which [is] in Christ Jesus,

² to Timotheus, [my] beloved child: grace, mercy, peace, from God [the] Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ I am thankful to God, whom I serve from [my] forefathers with pure conscience, how unceasingly I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day,

⁴ earnestly desiring to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

⁵ calling to mind the unfeigned faith which [has been] in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.

⁶ For which cause I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion.

⁸ Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God;

⁹ who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to [his] own purpose and grace, which [was] given to us in Christ Jesus before [the] ages of time,

¹⁰ but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings;

¹¹ to which *I* have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of [the] nations.

¹² For which cause also I suffer these things; but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him.

¹³ Have an outline of sound words, which [words] thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which [are] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted.

⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, Give more faith to us.

⁶ But the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed], ye had said to this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea, and it would have obeyed you.

⁷ But which of you [is there] who, having a bondman ploughing or shepherding, when he comes in out of the field, will say, Come and lie down immediately to table?

⁸ But will he not say to him, Prepare what I shall sup on, and gird thyself and serve me that I may eat and drink; and after that *thou* shalt eat and drink?

⁹ Is he thankful to the bondman because he has done what was ordered? I judge not.

¹⁰ Thus *ye* also, when ye shall have done all things that have been ordered you, say, We are unprofitable bondmen; we have done what it was our duty to do.