Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁹ But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword; my life from the power of the dog.

²¹ Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the unicorns.

²² ¶ I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.

²³ Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

²⁴ For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the poor in spirit; neither has he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before those that fear him.

²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied: those that seek him shall praise the LORD; your heart shall live for ever.

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD; and all the families of the Gentiles shall worship before thee.

²⁸ For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and he shall have dominion over the Gentiles.

⁹ ¶ All ye beasts of the field, all ye beasts of the forest; come to devour.

¹⁰ His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs; they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, they love to slumber.

¹¹ And these anxious dogs are insatiable, and even the shepherds did not know enough to understand: they all look to their own ways, each one for his gain, from his quarter.

¹² Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, or much more excellent.

¹⁷ ¶ Behold, thou doth call thyself a Jew and art supported by the law and doth glory in God

¹⁸ and dost know his will and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law,

¹⁹ and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness,

²⁰ an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of children, who hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

²¹ Thou, therefore, who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?

²² Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that dost abhor idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

²³ Thou that makest thy boast of the law, with rebellion to the law doth thou dishonour God?

²⁴ For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

²⁵ For circumcision verily profits if thou keep the law, but if thou art a rebel to the law, thy circumcision is made into a foreskin.

²⁶ Therefore if the uncircumcised keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his foreskin be counted for circumcision?

²⁷ And that which is by nature foreskin, but keeps the law perfectly, shall judge thee who with the letter and with the circumcision art rebellious to the law.

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is done outwardly in the flesh;

²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.