Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people,

⁶⁹ and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.

⁷⁰ As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began,

⁷¹ that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us,

⁷² to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,

⁷³ the oath which He swore to our father Abraham:

⁷⁴ that He would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear,

⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

⁷⁶ And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,

⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins,

⁷⁸ through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us,

⁷⁹ to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

¹³ “Your words have been defiant against Me,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘What have we spoken so much against Thee?’

¹⁴ Ye have said: ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

¹⁵ So now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.’”

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and who thought upon His name.

¹⁷ “And they shall be Mine,” saith the Lord of hosts, “in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son who serveth him.

¹⁸ Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.

¹⁸ What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

¹⁹ For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

²⁰ according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²² But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose, I know not.

²³ For I am in a strait between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better;

²⁴ nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

²⁵ And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy in faith,

²⁶ that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.