Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁶ ¶ But unto the wicked God saith, What part hast thou to declare my statutes or that thou should take my covenant in thy mouth?

¹⁷ Seeing thou dost hate chastening and dost cast my words behind thee.

¹⁸ When thou didst see a thief, then thou didst consent with him and hast been partaker with adulterers.

¹⁹ Thou didst give thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frames deceit.

²⁰ Thou didst sit and speak against thy brother; thou didst slander thine own mother’s son.

²¹ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou didst think that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes.

²² Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I take you away, and there be none to deliver.

²³ Whosoever sacrifices praise glorifies me; and to him that orders his ways aright I will show the salvation of God.

¹⁵ ¶ And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had given birth unto David, and it was very sick.

¹⁶ David, therefore, besought God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth.

¹⁷ And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

¹⁸ And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died. And the slaves of David feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice; how much more will it trouble him if we tell him that the child is dead?

¹⁹ But when David saw that his slaves whispered, David understood that the child was dead; therefore, David said unto his slaves, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.

²⁰ Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and came into the house of the LORD and worshipped. Then he came to his own house; and when he asked, they set bread before him, and he ate.

²¹ Then his slaves said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

²² And he replied, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will have mercy on me, that the child may live?

²³ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

²⁴ And David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in unto her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Solomon; {Heb. peace offering} and the LORD loved him.

²⁵ And he sent by the hand of Nathan, the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, {Heb. beloved of the LORD} by the LORD.

¹⁷ ¶ This I say, therefore, and require in the Lord that from now on ye not walk as the other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their own senses,

¹⁸ having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart,

¹⁹ who, after losing all sense of feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰ But ye have not so learned of the Christ,

²¹ if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,

²² that ye put off everything concerning the old way of life, that is, the old man who corrupts himself according to deceitful desires,

²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your understanding

²⁴ and that ye put on the new man, which is created in conformity to God in righteousness and in the holiness of the truth.