Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² Lo, God [is] my salvation, I trust, and fear not, For my strength and song [is] Jah Jehovah, And He is to me for salvation.

³ And ye have drawn waters with joy Out of the fountains of salvation,

⁴ And ye have said in that day, Give ye praise to Jehovah, call in His name. Make known among the peoples His acts. Make mention that set on high is His name.

⁵ Praise ye Jehovah, for excellence He hath done, Known is this in all the earth.

⁶ Cry aloud, and sing, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in thy midst [is] the Holy One of Israel!'

6 Wo [to] those secure in Zion, And those confident in the mount of Samaria, The marked of the chief of the nations, And come to them have the house of Israel.

² Pass ye over [to] Calneh and see, And go thence [to] Hamath the great, And go down [to] Gath of the Philistines, Are [they] better than these kingdoms? Greater [is] their border than your border?

³ Who are putting away the day of evil, And ye bring nigh the seat of violence,

⁴ Who are lying down on beds of ivory, And are spread out on their couches, And are eating lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall,

⁵ Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music;

⁶ Who are drinking with bowls of wine, And [with] chief perfumes anoint [themselves], And have not been pained for the breach of Joseph.

⁷ Therefore now they remove at the head of the captives, And turned aside is the mourning-feast of stretched-out ones.

⁸ Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by Himself, An affirmation of Jehovah, God of Hosts: I am abominating the excellency of Jacob, And his high places I have hated, And I have delivered up the city and its fulness.

8 And we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God, that hath been given in the assemblies of Macedonia,

² because in much trial of tribulation the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty, did abound to the riches of their liberality;

³ because, according to [their] power, I testify, and above [their] power, they were willing of themselves,

⁴ with much entreaty calling on us to receive the favour and the fellowship of the ministration to the saints,

⁵ and not according as we expected, but themselves they did give first to the Lord, and to us, through the will of God,

⁶ so that we exhorted Titus, that, according as he did begin before, so also he may finish to you also this favour,

⁷ but even as in every thing ye do abound, in faith, and word, and knowledge, and all diligence, and in your love to us, that also in this grace ye may abound;

⁸ not according to command do I speak, but because of the diligence of others, and of your love proving the genuineness,

⁹ for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that because of you he became poor -- being rich, that ye by that poverty may become rich.

¹⁰ and an opinion in this do I give: for this to you [is] expedient, who not only to do, but also to will, did begin before -- a year ago,

¹¹ and now also finish doing [it], that even as [there is] the readiness of the will, so also the finishing, out of that which ye have,

¹² for if the willing mind is present, according to that which any one may have it is well-accepted, not according to that which he hath not;

¹³ for not that for others release, and ye pressured, [do I speak,]

¹⁴ but by equality, at the present time your abundance -- for their want, that also their abundance may be for your want, that there may be equality,

¹⁵ according as it hath been written, `He who [did gather] much, had nothing over; and he who [did gather] little, had no lack.'