Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence.

² But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.

⁴ Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.

⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.

⁶ For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?

²¹ What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

²² And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.

²³ If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you may also do well, when you have learned evil.

²⁴ And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.

²⁵ This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.

²⁶ Wherefore I have also bared my thighs against thy face, and thy shame hath appeared.

²⁷ I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?

¹⁷ And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one's work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here.

¹⁸ Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers:

¹⁹ But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled,

²⁰ Foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you,

²¹ Who through him are faithful in God, who raised him up from the dead, and hath given him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

²² Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity, with a brotherly love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly:

²³ Being born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever.

²⁴ For all flesh is as grass; and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away.

²⁵ But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel hath been preached unto you.

2 Wherefore laying away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions,