Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

² Judah was his holiness, and Israel his dominion.

³ The sea saw it and fled; Jordan was driven back.

⁴ The mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs.

⁵ What came upon thee, O thou sea, that thou didst flee? And thou O Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

⁶ Ye mountains, why didst ye skip like rams and ye little hills, like lambs?

⁷ At the presence of the Lord, the earth trembles, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸ who turned the rock into a reservoir of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

2 ¶ Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,

² and said, I cried by reason of my tribulation unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and thou didst hear my voice.

³ For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

⁴ Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will see thy holy temple again.

⁵ The waters compassed me about, even to the soul, the depth closed me round about; the weeds were wrapped about my head.

⁶ I descended to the roots of the mountains; the earth put her bars about me for ever; yet thou hast brought up my life out of the grave, O LORD my God.

⁷ When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer entered in unto thee in thy holy temple.

⁸ Those that observe lying vanities forsake his mercy.

⁹ But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed; that saving comes of the LORD.

¹⁰ ¶ And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

³⁸ ¶ Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we desire to see a sign from thee.

³⁹ But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there no sign shall be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah;

⁴⁰ for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

⁴¹ The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.

⁴² The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.