Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁷ O Jehovah, thou hast ^[a]persuaded me, and I was persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocketh me. ⁸ For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Jehovah is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day. ⁹ And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain. ¹⁰ For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. ¹¹ But Jehovah is with me as a mighty one and a terrible: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly put to shame, because they have not ^[b]dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten. ¹² But, O Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seest the ^[c]heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause. ¹³ Sing unto Jehovah, praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

3 This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; ² that ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles: ³ knowing this first, that ^[a]in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his ^[b]coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and ^[c]amidst water, by the word of God; ⁶ by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been ^[d]stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.