Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

40 Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.

² Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her time of service and her warfare are ended, that [her punishment is accepted and] her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received [punishment] from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³ A voice of one who cries: Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [clear away the obstacles]; make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God!^(A)

⁴ Every valley shall be lifted and filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked and uneven shall be made straight and level, and the rough places a plain.

⁵ And the glory (majesty and splendor) of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.^(B)

⁶ A voice says, Cry [prophesy]! And I said, What shall I cry? [The voice answered, Proclaim:] All flesh is as frail as grass, and all that makes it attractive [its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good] is transitory, like the flower of the field.

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely [all] the people are like grass.

⁸ The ^[a]grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.^(C)

⁹ O you who bring good tidings to Zion, get up to the high mountain. O you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!^(D)

¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God will come with might, and His arm will rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.^(E)

¹¹ He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young.

Psalm 85

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ Lord, You have [at last] been favorable and have dealt graciously with Your land [of Canaan]; You have brought back [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob.

² You have forgiven and taken away the iniquity of Your people, You have covered all their sin. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!

⁸ I will listen [with expectancy] to what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints (those who are in right standing with Him)—but let them not turn again to [self-confident] folly.

⁹ Surely His salvation is near to those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him, [and is ready to be appropriated] that [the manifest presence of God, His] glory may tabernacle and abide in our land.

¹⁰ Mercy and loving-kindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

¹¹ Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

¹² Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

¹³ Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way in which to walk.

⁸ Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.^(A)

⁹ The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [^[a]material] elements [of the universe] will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus ^[b]in the process of being dissolved, what kind of person ought [each of] you to be [in the meanwhile] in consecrated and holy behavior and devout and godly qualities,

¹² While you wait and earnestly long for (expect and hasten) the coming of the day of God by reason of which the flaming heavens will be dissolved, and the [^[c]material] elements [of the universe] will flare and melt with fire?^(B)

¹³ But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide.^(C)

¹⁴ So, beloved, since you are expecting these things, be eager to be found by Him [at His coming] without spot or blemish and at peace [in serene confidence, ^[d]free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].

¹⁵ And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord [^[e]His slowness in avenging wrongs and judging the world] is salvation (^[f]that which is conducive to the soul’s safety), even as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the spiritual insight given him,

1 The beginning [of the facts] of the good news (the Gospel) of Jesus Christ, ^[a]the Son of God.

^2 [b]Just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will make ready Your way—^(A)

³ A voice of one crying in the wilderness [shouting in the desert], Prepare the way of the Lord, make His ^[c]beaten tracks straight (level and passable)!^(B)

⁴ John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness (desert), preaching a baptism [^[d]obligating] repentance (^[e]a change of one’s mind for the better, heartily amending one’s ways, with abhorrence of his past sins) in order ^[f]to obtain forgiveness of and release from sins.

⁵ And there kept going out to him [continuously] all the country of Judea and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, ^[g]as they were confessing their sins.

⁶ And John wore clothing woven of camel’s hair and had a leather girdle around his loins and ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷ And he preached, saying, After me comes He Who is stronger (more powerful and more valiant) than I, the strap of Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to stoop down and unloose.

⁸ I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.