Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

² Behold, God, my salvation! I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song; yes, He has become my salvation.

³ Therefore with joy will you draw water from the wells of salvation.

⁴ And in that day you will say, Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name and by means of His name [in solemn entreaty]; declare and make known His deeds among the peoples of the earth, proclaim that His name is exalted!

⁵ Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done excellent things [gloriously]; let this be made known to all the earth.

⁶ Cry aloud and shout joyfully, you women and inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom [of Israel’s ten tribes] and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord.

⁹ For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations and cause it to move to and fro as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the earth and be lost [from My sight].^(A)

¹⁰ All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake or meet [and assail] us.

¹¹ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, the fallen hut or booth, and close up its breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old,

¹² That they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the nations that are called by My name, says the Lord Who does this.^(B)

¹³ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt [that is, everything heretofore barren and unfruitful shall overflow with spiritual blessing].^(C)

¹⁴ And I will bring back the exiles of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵ And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be torn up out of their land which I gave them, says the Lord your God.

⁵⁷ Now the time that Elizabeth should be delivered came, and she gave birth to a son.

⁵⁸ And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy on her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹ And it occurred that on the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were intending to call him Zachariah after his father,^(A)

⁶⁰ But his mother answered, Not so! But he shall be called John.

⁶¹ And they said to her, None of your relatives is called by that name.

⁶² And they inquired with signs to his father [as to] what he wanted to have him called.

⁶³ Then Zachariah asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they were all astonished.

⁶⁴ And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing and praising and thanking God.

⁶⁵ And awe and reverential fear came on all their neighbors; and all these things were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶ And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, Whatever will this little boy be then? For the hand of the Lord was [^[a]so evidently] with him [protecting and aiding him].