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.

57 ¶ The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

² He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

³ ¶ But come here, ye sons of the sorceress, generation of the adulterer and the whore.

⁴ Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom do ye make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not rebellious sons, a lying seed of transgression,

⁵ inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even unto them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a present. Should I not avenge these things?

⁷ Upon the lofty and high mountain thou hast set thy bed: even there thou didst go up to offer sacrifice.

⁸ Behind the doors also and the posts thou hast set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed and made thee a covenant with them; thou didst love their bed wherever thou didst see it.

⁹ And thou didst go to the king with ointment and didst multiply thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol.

¹⁰ Thou became wearied in the multitude of thy ways; yet thou didst not say, There is no remedy: thou hast found that which thou wast searching for; therefore thou repented not.

¹¹ And of whom hast thou reverenced or feared? Why dost thou lie; that thou hast not remembered me, nor have I come to thy thought? Have I not held my peace even of old, and thou hast never feared me?

¹² I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

¹³ ¶ When thou criest, let thy companions deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that waits in me shall have the land by inheritance and shall possess the mountain of my holiness.

¹⁵ Brethren, (I speak after the manner of men) Even when a covenant is of man, once it is confirmed, no one cancels it or adds to it.

¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He did not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

¹⁷ And this I say that regarding the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot cancel it, that it should make the promise of no effect.

¹⁸ For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹ ¶ For what then serves the law? It was added because of rebellions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

²⁰ Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

²¹ Is the law then against the promises of God? No, in no wise, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

²² But the scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to the believers.