Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁶¹ [Shin.] Princes have pursued me without cause, And because of Thy words was my heart afraid.

¹⁶² I do rejoice concerning Thy saying, As one finding abundant spoil.

¹⁶³ Falsehood I have hated, yea I abominate [it], Thy law I have loved.

¹⁶⁴ Seven [times] in a day I have praised Thee, Because of the judgments of Thy righteousness.

¹⁶⁵ Abundant peace have those loving Thy law, And they have no stumbling-block.

¹⁶⁶ I have waited for Thy salvation, O Jehovah, And Thy commands I have done.

¹⁶⁷ Kept hath my soul Thy testimonies, And I do love them exceedingly.

¹⁶⁸ I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies, For all my ways are before Thee!

¹⁷ And the word of Jehovah is unto Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

¹⁸ `Rise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who [is] in Samaria, -- lo, in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he hath gone down to possess it,

¹⁹ and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, Hast thou murdered, and also possessed? and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, do the dogs lick thy blood, even thine.'

²⁰ And Ahab saith unto Elijah, `Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' and he saith, `I have found -- because of thy selling thyself to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah;

²¹ lo, I am bringing in unto thee evil, and have taken away thy posterity, and cut off to Ahab those sitting on the wall, and restrained, and left, in Israel,

²² and given up thy house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which thou hast provoked [Me], and dost cause Israel to sin.

²³ `And also of Jezebel hath Jehovah spoken, saying, The dogs do eat Jezebel in the bulwark of Jezreel;

²⁴ him who dieth of Ahab in a city do the dogs eat, and him who dieth in a field do fowl of the heavens eat;

²⁵ surely there hath none been like Ahab, who sold himself to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, whom Jezebel his wife hath moved,

²⁶ and he doth very abominably to go after the idols, according to all that the Amorite did whom Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel.'

²⁷ And it cometh to pass, at Ahab's hearing these words, that he rendeth his garments, and putteth sackcloth on his flesh, and fasteth, and lieth in sackcloth, and goeth gently.

²⁸ And the word of Jehovah is unto Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

²⁹ `Hast thou seen that Ahab hath been humbled before Me? because that he hath been humbled before Me, I bring not in the evil in his days; in the days of his son I bring in the evil on his house.'

4 Beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world;

² in this know ye the Spirit of God; every spirit that doth confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is,

³ and every spirit that doth not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh having come, of God it is not; and this is that of the antichrist, which ye heard that it doth come, and now in the world it is already.

⁴ Ye -- of God ye are, little children, and ye have overcome them; because greater is He who [is] in you, than he who is in the world.

⁵ They -- of the world they are; because of this from the world they speak, and the world doth hear them;

⁶ we -- of God we are; he who is knowing God doth hear us; he who is not of God, doth not hear us; from this we know the spirit of the truth, and the spirit of the error.