Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Overcomer, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.

¹ ¶ Why dost thou boast of evil, O strong man? The mercy of God is day by day.

² Thy tongue devises wickedness like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

³ Thou dost love evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

⁴ Thou dost love all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

⁵ God shall likewise cast thee down for ever; he shall cut thee off and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

⁶ ¶ The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying:

⁷ Behold, this is the man that did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the eternal mercy of God for ever.

⁹ I will praise thee for ever because thou hast done it, and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy merciful ones.

24 ¶ And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and for their princes and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

² And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Long ago your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods.

¹¹ And ye passed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the lords of Jericho fought against you: the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hands.

¹² And I sent hornets before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

¹³ And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour and cities which ye did not build, and ye dwell in them and eat of vineyards and oliveyards which ye did not plant.

¹⁴ Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in perfection and in truth and put away from among you the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve ye the LORD.

¹⁵ ¶ And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

¹⁶ Then the people answered and said, May it never happen that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods.

¹⁷ For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery and who did those great signs in our sight and has kept us in all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

¹⁸ And the LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land; therefore, will we also serve the LORD, for he is our God.

¹⁹ Then Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not allow your rebellions nor your sins.

²⁰ If ye forsake the LORD and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you, after he has done you good.

²¹ And the people said unto Joshua, No, but we will serve the LORD.

²² And Joshua said unto the people, Ye shall be witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We shall be witnesses.

²³ Now, therefore, take away, the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.

²⁴ And the people replied unto Joshua, We will serve the LORD our God and hear his voice.

²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them statutes and laws in Shechem.

²⁶ And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and taking a great stone, he set it up there under an oak that was in the sanctuary of the LORD.

²⁷ And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke unto us: it shall be, therefore, a witness unto you lest ye deny your God.

²⁸ So Joshua sent the people, each one unto his inheritance.

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin;

¹⁰ as it is written, There is no one righteous, no, not one;

¹¹ there is no one that understands; there is no one that seeks after God.

¹² They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is no one that does good, no, not one.

¹³ Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips,

¹⁴ whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;

¹⁵ their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ destruction and misery are in their ways,

¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known;

¹⁸ there is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹ ¶ Now we know that all that the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may submit themselves unto God.

²⁰ For by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

²¹ But now, without the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets:

²² the righteousness, that is, of God by the faith of Jesus, the Christ, for all and upon all those that believe in him, for there is no difference;