Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim, {lilies} A testimony of Asaph: A Psalm.

¹ ¶ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.

² In the presence of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us.

³ Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

⁴ O LORD God of the hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

⁵ Thou dost feed them with the bread of tears and give them tears to drink in great measure.

⁶ Thou dost make us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.

⁷ Turn us again, O God of the hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

¹⁷ Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself,

¹⁸ so we will not go back from thee. Thou shalt quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

¹⁹ Turn us again, O LORD God of the hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

14 ¶ Behold, the day of the LORD comes, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

² For I will gather all the Gentiles against Jerusalem in battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

³ Then the LORD shall go forth and fight against those Gentiles as when he fought in the day of battle.

⁴ And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, making a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.

⁵ And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal; and ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the LORD my God shall come, and all his saints with him.

⁶ And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear, nor dark;

⁷ but it shall be one day which is known to the LORD, not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light.

⁸ ¶ And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter it shall be.

⁹ And the LORD shall be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD shall be one, and his name one.

4 ¶ It is in order then, brethren, that we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that in the manner ye were taught of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would continue to grow.

² For ye already know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

³ For the will of God is your sanctification, that ye should separate yourselves from fornication,

⁴ that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honesty,

⁵ not with affection of lust, as the Gentiles who do not know God,

⁶ that no one oppress and defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

⁷ For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification.

⁸ He therefore that despises us, does not despise man, but God, who has also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

⁹ ¶ But as touching love among the brethren, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves have learned of God that ye are to show charity to one another.

¹⁰ And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, but we beseech you, brethren, that ye continue to grow

¹¹ and that ye procure to be quiet and to do your business and to work with your hands, as we commanded you,

¹² that ye may walk honestly toward those that are without, and that ye may desire nothing from any one.

¹³ ¶ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the others who have no hope.

¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those who sleep in Jesus will God also bring with him.

¹⁵ For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

¹⁷ then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.