Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time have I heard You. And on a Day of Salvation have I helped You. And I will preserve You, and will give You as a Covenant to the people, so that You may raise up the Earth and obtain the inheritance of the desolate heritages,

⁹ “so that You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ and to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed along the ways. And their pastures shall be on all the tops of the hills.

¹⁰ “They shall not be hungry, nor shall they be thirsty, nor shall the heat strike them, nor the Sun. For He Who has compassion on them, shall lead them. Even by the springs of water shall He drive them.

¹¹ “And I will make all My mountains as a way. And My paths shall be exalted.

¹² “Behold, these shall come from far away. And lo, these from the North and from the West, and these from the land of Sinim.”

¹³ Rejoice, O heavens! And be joyful, O Earth! Burst forth into praise, O mountains! For God has comforted His people and will have mercy upon His afflicted!

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me. And my LORD has forgotten me.”

¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even if they should forget, yet will I not forget you.

¹⁶ “Behold, I have carved you upon the palms of My Hands. Your walls are always in My sight.

131 LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor are my eyes lofty, nor have I proceeded in great matters and things hidden from me.

² Surely, I have behaved like one weaned from his mother and kept silent. In myself, I am as one who is weaned.

³ Let Israel wait on the LORD from henceforth and forever. A song of degrees

4 Let a man so think of us, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

² And as for the rest, it is required of the stewards that everyone be found faithful.

³ As for me, however, it is my least concern to be examined by you, or by mankind. I do not even examine myself.

⁴ For though I am aware of nothing against myself, I am not thereby justified. But the One who judges me is the Lord.

⁵ Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, Who will enlighten things that are hidden in darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God.

²⁴ “No man can serve two masters. For either he shall hate the one, and love the other, or else he shall lean to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches.

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not be careful for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Has not life more worth than food? And the body than clothing?

²⁶ “Behold the birds of the heaven. For they neither sow nor reap, nor carry into the barns. Yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?

²⁷ “Which of you by worrying is able to add one cubit to his lifespan?

²⁸ “And why do you care for clothes? Learn how the lilies of the field grow. They neither weary nor spin.

²⁹ “Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

³⁰ “So, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not do much more to you? O you of little faith.

³¹ “Therefore, take no thought saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘How shall we be clothed?’

³² “For the Gentiles seek after all these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

³³ “But seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

³⁴ “Care not then for tomorrow. For tomorrow shall care for itself. The day has enough with its own grief.”