Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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.

⁶ Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel and for four [for multiplied delinquencies], I will not reverse the punishment of it or revoke My word concerning it, because they have sold the [strictly] just and uncompromisingly righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals;

⁷ They pant after [the sight of] the poor [reduced to such misery that they will be throwing] dust of the earth on their heads [in token of their grief]; they defraud and turn aside the humble [who are too meek to defend themselves]; and a man and his father will have sexual relations with the same maiden, so that My holy name is profaned.

⁸ And they lay themselves down beside every [pagan] altar upon clothes they have taken in pledge [for indebtedness], and in the house of their God [in daring contempt of Him] they frivolously drink the wine which has been exacted from those [unjustly] fined.

⁹ Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹ And I raised up some of your sons for prophets and some of your young men for dedicated ones [Nazirites]. Is this not true, O you children of Israel? says the Lord.^(A)

¹² But you gave the dedicated ones [the Nazirites] wine to drink and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

¹³ Behold, I am pressed under you and I will press you down in your place as a cart presses that is full of sheaves.

¹⁴ And flight shall be lost to the swift and refuge shall fail him; the strong shall not retain and confirm his strength, neither shall the mighty deliver himself.

¹⁵ Neither shall he stand who handles the bow, and he who is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver his life.

¹⁶ And he who is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked on that day, says the Lord.

2 For I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you [how severe an inward struggle I am engaged in for you] and for those [believers] at Laodicea, and for all who [^[a]like yourselves] have never seen my face and known me personally.

² [For my concern is] that their hearts may be ^[b]braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively ^[c]more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One).

³ In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (^[d]comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.

⁴ I say this in order that no one may mislead and delude you by plausible and persuasive and attractive arguments and beguiling speech.

⁵ For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ [that ^[e]leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].