Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

118 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

² Blessed are they who search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart.

¹⁴ I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches.

¹⁵ I will meditate on thy commandments: and I will consider thy ways.

¹⁶ I will think of thy justifications: I will not forget thy words.

¹⁷ GIMEL. Give bountifully to thy servant, enliven me: and I shall keep thy words.

¹⁸ Open thou my eyes: and I will consider the wondrous things of thy law.

¹⁹ I am a sojourner on the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

²⁰ My soul hath coveted to long for thy justifications, at all times.

²¹ Thou hast rebuked the proud: they are cursed who decline from thy commandments.

²² Remove from reproach and contempt: because I have sought after thy testimonies.

²³ For princes sat, and spoke against me: but thy servant was employed in thy justifications.

²⁴ For thy testimonies are my meditation: and thy justifications my counsel.

²⁰ God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven.

²¹ And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²² And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth.

²³ And the evening and morning were the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.

²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.

²⁷ And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.

²⁸ And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.

²⁹ And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:

³⁰ And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done.

³¹ And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.

2 So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them.

² And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

³ And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

⁴ These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth:

⁵⁰ Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God: neither shall corruption possess incorruption.

⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed.

⁵² In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible: and we shall be changed.

⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality.

⁵⁴ And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.

⁵⁵ O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?

⁵⁶ Now the sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmoveable; always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.