Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
My Soul Waits for the Lord
A Song of (A)Ascents.
130 Out of (B)the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
(C)Let your ears be attentive
to (D)the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should (E)mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could (F)stand?
4 But with you there is (G)forgiveness,
(H)that you may be feared.
The Creation of Man and Woman
4 (A)These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 When no (B)bush of the field[a] was yet in the land[b] and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man (C)to work the ground, 6 and a mist[c] was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of (D)dust from the ground and (E)breathed into his (F)nostrils the breath of life, and (G)the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a (H)garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (I)The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, (J)and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of (K)Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the (L)Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Parable of the Sower
4 (A)And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 (B)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, (C)it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among (D)thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded (E)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, (F)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Purpose of the Parables
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, (G)“To you it has been given to know (H)the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so (I)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 (J)Now the parable is this: The seed is (K)the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not (L)believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it (M)with joy. But these have no root; they (N)believe for a while, and in time of testing (O)fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but (P)as they go on their way they are choked by the (Q)cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and (R)bear fruit (S)with patience.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.