Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Maschil of Asaph.

¹ ¶ Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter enigmas of old,

³ which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their sons, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their sons:

⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the sons which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their sons

⁷ that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments

20 ¶ And the LORD spoke unto Joshua, saying,

² Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke unto you by the hand of Moses,

³ so that the manslayer who kills any person in error and without knowledge may flee there, and they shall be your refuge from the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood.

⁴ And he that flees unto one of these cities shall present himself at the entering of the gate of the city and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city; they shall receive him into the city among them and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

⁵ And when the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood pursues after him, they shall not deliver the manslayer up into his hand because he smote his neighbour by error, nor did he have enmity with him before.

⁶ And he shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days; then shall the manslayer return, and come unto his own city and unto his own house unto the city from where he fled.

⁷ ¶ Then they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in the mountain of Naphtali and Shechem in the mountain of Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

⁸ And on the other side of the Jordan of Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹ These were the cities appointed for all the sons of Israel and for the stranger that sojourns among them that anyone who kills any person by error might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger {Heb. redeemer} of blood until he stands before the congregation.

24 ¶ And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.

² And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

³ And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age?

⁴ ¶ And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no one deceive you.

⁵ For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and shall deceive many.

⁶ And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for it is necessary that all these things must take place; but the end is not yet.

⁷ For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in different places.

⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

¹⁰ And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

¹¹ And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

¹² And because lawlessness shall abound, the charity of many shall wax cold.

¹³ But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.