Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
46 Mary responded, “Oh, how I praise the Lord. 47 How I rejoice in God my Savior! 48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation forever shall call me blest of God. 49 For he, the mighty Holy One, has done great things to me. 50 His mercy goes on from generation to generation, to all who reverence him.
51 “How powerful is his mighty arm! How he scatters the proud and haughty ones! 52 He has torn princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. 53 He has satisfied the hungry hearts and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54 And how he has helped his servant Israel! He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful. 55 For he promised our fathers—Abraham and his children—to be merciful to them forever.”
17 Your eyes will see the King in his beauty and the highlands of heaven far away. 18 Your mind will think back to this time of terror when the Assyrian officers outside your walls are counting your towers and estimating how much they will get from your fallen city. 19 But soon they will all be gone. These fierce, violent people with a strange, jabbering language you can’t understand will disappear.
20 Instead you will see Jerusalem at peace, a place where God is worshiped, a city quiet and unmoved. 21 The glorious Lord will be to us as a wide river of protection, and no enemy can cross. 22 For the Lord is our Judge, our Lawgiver and our King; he will care for us and save us.
6-7 Then the angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true: ‘I am coming soon!’[a] God, who tells his prophets what the future holds, has sent his angel to tell you this will happen soon. Blessed are those who believe it and all else written in the scroll.”
18 And I solemnly declare to everyone who reads this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God shall add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone subtracts any part of these prophecies, God shall take away his share in the Tree of Life, and in the Holy City just described.
20 “He who has said all these things declares: Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.