Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

³ Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

⁴ One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the LORD and to enquire in his temple.

⁵ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his tabernacle; in the secret of his tent shall he hide me; he shall set me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.

⁷ ¶ Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me and answer me.

⁸ My heart has spoken unto me from thee, Seek my face. Thy face, O LORD, will I seek.

⁹ Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy slave away in anger: thou hast been my help; do not leave me or forsake me, O God of my saving health.

¹⁰ For my father and my mother have left me, and the LORD has taken me up.

¹¹ Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a right path because of my enemies.

¹² Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty.

¹³ I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, for the LORD.

¹⁰ ¶ Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we despise each man his brother by breaking the covenant of our fathers?

¹¹ Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD by loving and marrying the daughter of a strange god.

¹² The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offers an offering unto the LORD of the hosts.

¹³ And once again ye shall cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, for I shall not even look at the offering any more to receive a free will offering from your hand.

¹⁴ Yet ye say, Why? Because the LORD has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously; yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant.

¹⁵ And did he not make one, having in himself abundance of the Spirit? And why one? That he might seek offspring of God. Therefore take heed to your spirit and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

¹⁶ He that rejects her, sending her away, said the LORD God of Israel, covers the violence with his garment, said the LORD of the hosts; therefore take heed in your spirit, and do not be treacherous.

¹⁷ Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, In what have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that does evil pleases the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

3 ¶ Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant, whom ye desire: behold, he comes, said the LORD of the hosts.

⁵ ¶ There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

⁷ And they had no child because Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well advanced in years.

⁸ And it came to pass that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,

⁹ according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense entering into the temple of the Lord.

¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the time of incense.

¹¹ And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

¹³ But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

¹⁴ And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

¹⁵ For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

¹⁶ And he shall turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.

¹⁷ And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the rebellious to the prudence of the just, to make ready a prepared people for the Lord.