Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and will not be afraid,
for the Lord[a] is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.”(A)
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.(B) 4 And you will say on that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord;
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(A)
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(B)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(C)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(D)
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(E)
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.(F)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.(G)
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(H)
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.(I)
The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem
9 Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, 2 for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.(A) 3 But I am sending[a] the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;(B) 4 otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be put to shame—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking.[b] 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an extortion.
6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.(C) 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.(D) 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing[c] in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.(E) 9 As it is written,
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.[e] 11 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us, 12 for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. 13 Through the testing of this ministry you[f] glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your partnership with them and with all others,(G) 14 while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!(H)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.