Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They have corrupted; and done an abominable work. There is no one who does good.

² The LORD looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any who would understand, and seek God.

³ All have gone out of the way. They are all corrupt. There is no one who does good; no, not one.

⁴ Do not all the workers of iniquity know that they eat up my people as they eat bread? They do not call upon the LORD.

⁵ There they shall be taken with fear, because God is in the generation of the just.

⁶ You have shamed the counsel of the poor. But the LORD is his refuge.

⁷ Oh, give salvation to Israel out of Zion. When the LORD turns the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. Note that Psalm 14:5-7, which are put into the common translation (and may seem to some to be left out here) are not in the same Psalm in the Hebrew text. Rather, they are put in more fully to express the manners of the wicked. They are gathered out of Psalms 5, 10, 36, 140, and Isaiah 59. They are alleged by Saint Paul and placed together in Romans 3. A Psalm of David.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes and behold those who come from the North. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?

²¹ What will you say when He shall reckon with you? For you have taught them to be captains, as chief over you. Shall not sorrow take you, as a woman in labor?

²² And if you say in your heart, “Why do these things come upon me?” For the multitude of your iniquities are your skirts uncovered and your heels made bare.

²³ Can the black moor change his skin, or the leopard his spots? May you who are accustomed to doing evil also do good?

²⁴ “Therefore, I will scatter them as the stubble that is taken away with the south wind.

²⁵ “This is your portion, the part of your measures from Me,” says the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in lies.

²⁶ “Therefore, I have also uncovered your skirts upon your face, so that your shame may appear.

²⁷ “I have seen your adulteries and your neighings, the filthiness of your whoredom on the hills, in the fields, your abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you not be made clean as you once were?”

1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the Commandment of God our Savior, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

² To Timothy, my natural son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ As I urged you when I departed into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may charge some to teach no other doctrine,

⁴ or to consider fables and endless genealogies (which breed questions rather than godly edifying, which is by faith).

⁵ For the purpose of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith without hypocrisy.

⁶ Some have erred from such things and have turned to mindless twaddle.

⁷ They wish to be teachers of the Law and yet do not understand what they say or the things they affirm.

⁸ And we know that the Law is good if one uses it lawfully,

⁹ knowing this: that the Law is not given for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient; for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for killers of fathers and mothers, for murderers,

¹⁰ for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and anything else contrary to wholesome doctrine,

¹¹ according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was entrusted to me.