Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

51 Unto the end, understanding for David,

² When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul David went to the house of Achimelech. [1 Kings 22.]

³ Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity?

⁴ All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit.

⁵ Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness.

⁶ Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue.

⁷ Therefore will God destroy thee for ever: he will pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling place: and thy root out of the land of the living.

⁸ The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say:

⁹ Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches: and prevailed in his vanity.

¹⁰ But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever.

¹¹ I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name, for it is good in the sight of thy saints.

4 And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:

² And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.

³ And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.

⁴ And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?

⁵ Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befall the city.

⁶ And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued): and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy.

⁷ But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.

⁸ And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.

⁹ And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death.

¹⁰ And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished.

¹¹ And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?

⁸ First I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all, because your faith is spoken of in the whole world.

⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make a commemoration of you;

¹⁰ Always in my prayers making request, if by any means now at length I may have a prosperous journey, by the will of God, to come unto you.

¹¹ For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual grace, to strengthen you:

¹² That is to say, that I may be comforted together in you, by that which is common to us both, your faith and mine.

¹³ And I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that I have often purposed to come unto you, (and have been hindered hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

¹⁴ To the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, I am a debtor;

¹⁵ So (as much as is in me) I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are at Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek.

¹⁷ For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: The just man liveth by faith.