Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ ¶ The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills.

⁹ My beloved is like a roe or a young hart; behold, he stands behind our wall; he looks through the windows, blossoming through the lattice.

¹⁰ My beloved spoke and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

¹¹ For, behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone;

¹² the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the song is come, and the voice of the turtle dove has been heard in our land;

¹³ the fig tree has put forth her green figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

To the Overcomer: upon Shoshannim lilies, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves.

¹ ¶ My heart is overflowing with a good word; I speak of the things which I have done concerning the king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

² Thou art fairer than the sons of men, grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God has blessed thee for ever.

⁶ ¶ Thy throne, O God, is eternal and for ever, the rod of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

⁷ Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

⁸ All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made thee glad.

⁹ Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women; the queen stands at thy right hand with a crown of gold from Ophir.

¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

¹⁸ He, of his own will, has begotten us with the word of truth, that we should be the firstfruits of his creatures.

¹⁹ ¶ Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

²⁰ for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.

²¹ So then, leave all uncleanness and remains of malice and receive with meekness the word ingested within you, which is able to cause your souls to be saved.

²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

²³ For if anyone hears the word and does not put it into practice, this same is like unto the man beholding his natural face in a mirror:

²⁴ For he considered himself and went his way and in one hour forgot what he was like.

²⁵ But whosoever has looked attentively into the perfect law of liberty and has persevered in it, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, the same shall be blessed in their deed.

²⁶ If anyone among you thinks to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his religion is vain.

²⁷ The pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep thyself unspotted from this world.

7 ¶ Then came together unto him the Pharisees and some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,

² who upon seeing some of his disciples eat bread with common, that is to say, with unwashed, hands, they condemned them.

³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews, unless they wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

⁴ And when they come from the market, unless they wash, they eat not. And there are many other things which they took upon themselves to hold such as the washing of cups and pots, brasen vessels and of tables.)

⁵ Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do thy disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat bread with unwashed hands?

⁶ He answered and said unto them, Well has Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷ Howbeit in vain do they honor me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

⁸ For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such like things ye do.

¹⁴ And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you and understand;

¹⁵ there is nothing from outside the man that entering into him can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are what defile the man.

²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, come forth the evil thoughts, the adulteries, the fornications, the murders,

²² the thefts, the covetousness, the wickedness, the deceit, the lasciviousness, the evil eye, the slander, the pride, the unwiseness:

²³ all these evil things come out from within and defile the man.