Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

28 Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me, lest, if Thou be silent, I become like them that go down into the pit.

² Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward the oracle of Thy sanctuary.

³ Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

⁴ Give to them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give to them according to the work of their hands; render to them their deserts.

⁵ Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications!

⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise Him.

⁸ The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.

⁹ Save the people, and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.

⁴ Thus saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter,

⁵ whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their own shepherds pity them not.

⁶ For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” saith the Lord. “But lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”

⁷ And I will feed the flock for slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

⁸ Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me.

⁹ Then said I, “I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die, and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.”

¹⁰ And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.

¹¹ And it was broken on that day, and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord.

¹² And I said unto them, “If ye think it be good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.” So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

¹³ And the Lord said unto me, “Cast it unto the potter” — a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

¹⁴ Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ And the Lord said unto me, “Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

¹⁶ For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces.

¹⁷ “Woe to the sham shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”

19 And after these things I heard a great voice of a multitude of people in Heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power, unto the Lord our God,

² for true and righteous are His judgments: He hath judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.”

³ And again they said, “Alleluia!” And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

⁴ And the four and twenty elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!”

⁵ And a voice came out of the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.”

⁶ And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.”

⁸ And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

⁹ And he said unto me, “Write: ‘Blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said unto me, “These are the true sayings of God.”