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.

4 “O Israel, if you return, return to Me,” says the LORD, “and if you put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not waver.

² “And you shall swear, ‘The LORD lives in truth, in judgment and in righteousness. And the nations shall be blessed in Him and shall glory in Him.’”

³ For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah, and to Jerusalem:

⁴ “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among the thorns. Be circumcised to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My wrath come forth like fire, and burn, so that no one can quench it, because of the wickedness of your inventions.

⁵ “Declare in Judah, and show forth in Jerusalem, and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry and gather together, and say, ‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities!’

⁶ “Set up the standard in Zion. Prepare to flee. Do not stay. For I will bring a plague from the North, and a great destruction.”

⁷ The lion has come up from his den, and the destroyer of the Gentiles has departed, gone forth from his place to lay your land waste. Your cities shall be destroyed, without an inhabitant.

⁸ Therefore, gird yourself with sackcloth. Lament and howl. For the fierce wrath of the LORD has not turned back from us.

⁹ “And on that day,” says the LORD, “the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes and the priests shall be astonished, and the Prophets shall wonder.”

¹⁰ Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have deceived this people, and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ and the sword pierces to the heart.”

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall secretly bring in damnable heresies - even denying the Lord Who has bought them - and bring upon themselves swift damnation.

² And many shall follow their destructive ways, by whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed.

³ And through covetousness they shall, with crafty words, make merchandise of you. Their ancient condemnation is not lingering. And their destruction does not slumber.

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels who had sinned, but cast them down into Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness (to be kept for damnation);

⁵ nor spare the old world (save Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness), but brought in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly;

⁶ and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes (condemning and overthrowing them), and made them an example to those who would live ungodly afterward;

⁷ and delivered Lot only, overwrought with the unclean conduct of the wicked

⁸ (for he - being righteous and dwelling among them - tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds),

⁹ then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trials and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment;

¹⁰ and chiefly those who walk after the flesh (in the lust of uncleanness) and despise government. They are presumptuous, standing in their own conceit, and unafraid to blaspheme God’s glories.