Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A (A)Contemplation[a] of the sons of Korah.
44 We have heard with our ears, O God,
(B)Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2 (C)You drove out the [b]nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3 For (D)they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
(E)Because You favored them.
4 (F)You are my King, [c]O God;
[d]Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through You (G)we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For (H)I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those who hated us.
8 (I)In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9 But (J)You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us (K)turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [e]spoil for themselves.
11 (L)You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have (M)scattered us among the nations.
12 (N)You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13 (O)You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14 (P)You make us a byword among the nations,
(Q)A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
(R)Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17 (S)All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
(T)Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19 But You have severely broken us in (U)the place of jackals,
And covered us (V)with the shadow of death.
God’s Mercy on His People
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak [a]comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And (A)the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in (B)the days of her youth,
(C)As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me [b]‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me [c]‘My Master,’
17 For (D)I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a (E)covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle (F)I will shatter from the earth,
To make them (G)lie down safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And (H)you shall know the Lord.
21 “It shall come to pass in that day
That (I)I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
22 The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer [d]Jezreel.
23 Then (J)I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
(K)And I will have mercy on her who had [e]not obtained mercy;
Then (L)I will say to those who were [f]not My people,
‘You are [g]My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
Israel Will Return to God
3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a (M)lover[h] and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You shall (N)stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days (O)without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without (P)ephod or (Q)teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and (R)seek the Lord their God and (S)David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the (T)latter days.
16 So let no one (A)judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a [a]festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 (B)which are a shadow of things to come, but the [b]substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has [c]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to (C)the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, (D)grows with the increase that is from God.
20 [d]Therefore, if you (E)died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, (F)why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 (G)“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—(H)according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 (I)These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and [e]neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Not Carnality but Christ
3 If then you were (J)raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, (K)where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.