Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
14 Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her
and bring her into the desert,
and I will speak tenderly to her.[a]
15 From there I will give her
her vineyards,
and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope.
And there she will respond,
as in the days of her youth,
just as in the day of her coming out of
the land of Egypt.
16 And on that day—[b]
a declaration of Yahweh—
you will call me, “My husband;”[c]
you will no longer call me, “My Baal.”[d]
17 I will remove the names
of the Baals from her mouth,
and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.
18 I will make a covenant for them on that day,
with the animals[e] of the field,
with the birds[f] of the heaven, and
with the creeping things[g] of the ground;
the bow, the sword, and the war I will abolish from the land, and I will let them lie down in safety.
19 And I will take you as my wife forever;
I will take you as a wife for myself in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy.
20 I will take you as my wife[h] in faithfulness,
and you will know Yahweh.
Thanksgiving for Yahweh’s Compassion
Of David.[a]
103 Bless Yahweh, O my soul,
and all within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless Yahweh, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits:
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with loyal love and mercies,
5 who satisfies your life with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 Yahweh does deeds of justice
and judgments for all who are oppressed,
7 who made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people[b] of Israel.
8 Yahweh is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger[c] and abundant in loyal love.
9 He does not dispute continually,
nor keep his anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
nor repaid us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so his loyal love prevails over those who fear him.
12 As far as east is from west,
so he has removed far from us the guilt of our transgressions.
13 As a father pities[d] his children,
so Yahweh pities[e] those who fear him.
22 Bless Yahweh, all his works,[a]
in all the places of his dominion.
Bless Yahweh, O my soul.
New Covenant Ministry
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by all people, 3 revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Now we possess such confidence through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also makes us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Levi Called to Follow Jesus
13 And he went out again beside the sea,[a] and all the crowd was coming to him, and he began to teach[b] them. 14 And as he[c] was passing by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me!” And he stood up and[d] followed him.
15 And it happened that he was dining[e] in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with[f] Jesus and his disciples, for there were many and they were following him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they[g] saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, began to say[h] to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when[i] Jesus heard it[j], he said to them, “Those who are healthy do not have need of a physician, but those who are sick.[k] I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
On Fasting
18 And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, “Why[l] do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “The bridegroom’s attendants[m] are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, are they?[n] As long a time as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast. 20 But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. Otherwise[o] the patch pulls away from it—the new from the old—and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise[p] the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine is destroyed and the wineskins too. But new wine is put into new wineskins.”
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software