Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved to His vineyard. My Beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 And He hedged it and gathered out the stones from it. And he planted it with the best plants. And he built a tower in its midst, and made a winepress therein. Then He expected it to bring forth grapes. But it brought forth sour grapes.
3 “Now therefore, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 “What more could I have done to My vineyard that I have not done to it? Why, when I expected it to bring forth grapes, has it brought forth sour grapes?
5 “And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up. I will break its wall, and it shall be trodden down.
6 “And I will lay it waste. It shall be neither cut nor dug, but briers and thorns shall grow up. I will also Command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
7 Surely the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the House of Israel. And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment—but behold, oppression; for righteousness—but behold, a crying.
80 Hear, O You Shepherd of Israel, You Who leads Joseph like sheep. Show Your brightness, You Who sits between the Cherubims.
2 Stir up Your strength before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh and come to help us.
8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the heathen and planted it.
9 You made room for it, and caused it to take root, and it filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it; and the boughs thereof were like the pleasant cedars.
11 She stretched out her branches to the sea, and her boughs to the river.
12 Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all those who pass by the way have plucked her?
13 The wild boar, out of the wood, has destroyed it; and the wild beasts of the field have eaten it up.
14 Return, we beg You, O God of Hosts! Look down from Heaven and behold, and visit this vine
15 and the vineyard that Your right hand has planted, and the young vine which You made strong for Yourself.
16 It is burnt with fire and cut down. They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, and upon the son of man whom You made strong for Your own self,
18 so we will not go back from You. Revive us, and we shall call upon Your Name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of Hosts! Cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved. To him who excels upon Gittith: A Psalm committed to Asaph
29 By faith, they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land (in which the Egyptians, when they had tried to do so, were swallowed up).
30 By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were surrounded for seven days.
31 By faith, the prostitute Rahab, when she had received the spies peaceably, did not perish with those who disobeyed.
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would be too short for me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, also of David, and Samuel, and of the Prophets;
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained the promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, made the weak strong, became valiant in battle, turned the armies of the aliens to flight.
35 The women received their dead raised to life again. Also, others were tortured and refused deliverance so that they might receive a better resurrection.
36 And others have been tried by mockings and scourgings, and moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were killed with the sword. They wandered up and down in sheep’s skins, and in goats’ skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
38 Those of whom the world was not worthy wandered in wildernesses and mountains, and dens, and caves of the Earth.
39 And through faith, these all obtained a good report. And yet, they did not receive the promise;
40 God providing a better thing for us, so that they would not be made perfect apart from us.
12 Therefore, seeing that we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also cast away everything that presses down and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus - the Author and Finisher of our faith - Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the throne of God.
49 “I have come to cast fire on the Earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
50 “But I must be baptized with a baptism, and how I am grieved till it be accomplished.
51 “Do you think that I have come to give peace on Earth? I tell you no, but rather division.
52 “For from now on there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
53 “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
54 Then He said to the people, “When you see a cloud rise out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower comes.’ And so it does.
55 “And when the south wind blows, you say that it will be hot. And it happens.
56 “Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the Earth and of the sky. But why can you not discern this time?
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