Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Restoration of Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I am going to persuade her,
(A)Bring her into the wilderness,
And speak [a]kindly to her.
15 Then I will give her her (B)vineyards from there,
And (C)the [b]Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will [c](D)respond there as in the days of her youth,
As in the (E)day when she went up from the land of Egypt.
16 And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord,
“That you will call Me [d](F)my husband
And no longer call Me my [e]Baal.
17 For (G)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will no longer be [f]mentioned by their names.
18 On that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the (H)animals of the field,
The birds of the sky,
And the crawling things of the ground.
And I will [g](I)eliminate the bow, the sword, and war from the land,
And will let them (J)lie down in safety.
19 I will (K)betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in (L)righteousness and in justice,
In favor and in compassion,
20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will (M)know the Lord.
Praise for the Lord’s Mercies.
A Psalm of David.
103 (A)Bless the Lord, my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His (B)holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, my soul,
And (C)do not forget any of His benefits;
3 Who (D)pardons all your guilt,
Who (E)heals all your diseases;
4 Who (F)redeems your life from the pit,
Who (G)crowns you with favor and compassion;
5 Who (H)satisfies your [a]years with good things,
So that your youth is (I)renewed like the eagle.
6 The Lord (J)performs [b]righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are (K)oppressed.
7 He (L)made known His ways to Moses,
His (M)deeds to the sons of Israel.
8 The Lord is (N)compassionate and gracious,
(O)Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
9 He (P)will not always contend with us,
Nor will He (Q)keep His anger forever.
10 He has (R)not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
11 For as high (S)as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who [c]fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He (T)removed our wrongdoings from us.
13 Just (U)as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who [d]fear Him.
22 Bless the Lord, (A)all you works of His,
In all places of His dominion;
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Ministers of a New Covenant
3 Are we beginning to (A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, (B)letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, 3 revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, [a](D)delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of (E)the living God, not on (F)tablets of stone but on (G)tablets of [b](H)human hearts.
4 Such is the (I)confidence we have toward God through Christ. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but (J)our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as (K)servants of a (L)new covenant, not of (M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but (N)the Spirit gives life.
13 And He went out again by the seashore; and (A)all the [a]people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.
Levi (Matthew) Called
14 (B)As He passed by, He saw [b](C)Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and He *said to him, “(D)Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.
15 And it *happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and [c]sinners were [d]dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. 16 When (E)the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the [e]sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “(F)Why is He eating with tax collectors and [f]sinners?” 17 And hearing this, Jesus *said to them, “(G)It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
18 (H)John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them, [g]the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the (I)days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, [h]the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
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