Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸ O, LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer! Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.

⁹ Behold, O God Our Shield, and look upon the face of Your Anointed.

¹⁰ For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tabernacles of wickedness.

¹¹ For the LORD God is the Sun and Shield. The LORD will give grace and glory; and He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly.

¹² O, LORD of Hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You. To him who excels: A Psalm committed to the sons of Korah

¹³ Then Daniel was brought before the king. And the king spoke and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom my father the king brought out of Jewry?

¹⁴ “Now, I have heard of you; that the spirit of the holy gods is in you; and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

¹⁵ “Now therefore, wise men and astrologers have been brought before me, that they should read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof. But they could not declare the interpretation of the thing.

¹⁶ “Then I heard of you; that you could show interpretations, and dissolve doubts. Now, if you can read the writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, you shall be clothed with purple, and shall have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

¹⁷ Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Keep your rewards to yourself, and give your gifts to another. I will still read the writing to the king and show him the interpretation.

¹⁸ “O king, hear. The most high God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, your father, a kingdom, and majesty, and honor, and glory.

¹⁹ “And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled, and feared before him. He put to death whom he would. He struck whom he would; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down.

²⁰ “But when his heart was puffed up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his honor from him.

²¹ “And he was driven from the sons of men. And his heart was made like the beasts. And his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass, like oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of the heaven, till he knew that the most high God bore rule over the kingdom of men, and that he appoints whomever he pleases over it.

²² “And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all these things,

²³ “But have lifted yourself up against the Lord of Heaven. And they have brought the vessels of his House before you. And you and your princes, your wives and your concubines have drunk wine in them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor understand. And the God in whose hand your breath is, and all your ways, him have you not glorified.

²⁴ “Then was the palm of the hand sent from him and has written this writing.

²⁵ “And this is the writing that he has written, ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN’.

²⁶ “This is the interpretation of the thing. MENE, God has numbered your kingdom, and has finished it.

²⁷ TEKEL, you are weighed in the balance, and are found too light.

²⁸ PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

²⁹ Then, at the commandment of Belshazzar, they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold around his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰ The same night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, killed.

³¹ And Darius of the Medes took the kingdom, being sixty-two years old.

²⁸ “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and came to the elder, and said, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’

²⁹ “But he answered, and said, ‘I will not.’ But later he changed his mind and went.

³⁰ “Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered, and said, ‘I will, sir.’ But he did not go.

³¹ “Which of the two did the will of the father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of God.

³² “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And you, though you saw it, were not moved with repentance afterward, so that you might believe him.