Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² Behold, O God my saving health, I will trust and not be afraid for JAH, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he also is become saving health unto me.

³ Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of saving health.

⁴ ¶ And in that day ye shall say, Sing unto the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, remember how his name is exalted.

⁵ Sing psalms unto the LORD; for he has done excellent things; let this be known in all the earth.

⁶ Rejoice and sing, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

⁴ ¶ Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, and cut off the poor of the land,

⁵ saying, When the month is over, we will sell the wheat; and after the sabbath day we will open the storehouse of bread, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit;

⁶ that we may buy the poor for money and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat.

⁷ The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

⁸ Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall all rise up as a flood, and it shall be cast out and sunk, as the river of Egypt.

⁹ And it shall come to pass in that day, said the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will cover the earth with darkness in the clear day;

¹⁰ and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will cause sackcloth to be brought up upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son and the end thereof as a bitter day.

¹¹ ¶ Behold, the days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine to the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

¹² and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

9 ¶ For regarding the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

² For I know your ready desire, for which I gloried of you to those of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has provoked many.

³ Yet I have sent the brethren lest our glorying of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready,

⁴ lest haply if those of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed of this our confidence.

⁵ Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would first go unto you and prepare beforehand your blessing, of which ye had given notice before that the same might be ready as a blessing, and not as of covetousness.

⁶ ¶ But this I say, He who sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he who sows in blessings shall also reap blessings.

⁷ Each one according as they purpose in their heart, so let them give, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound in you that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

⁹ As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains for ever.

¹⁰ Now he that supplies seed to the sower shall also supply bread for food and shall multiply your seed sown and shall increase the growing of the fruits of your righteousness,

¹¹ so that being enriched in everything to all generosity, which works out through us thanksgiving unto God.

¹² For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also abounds in much thanksgiving unto God;

¹³ that by the experience of this ministration, they glorify God for the obedience of your consent unto the gospel of the Christ and in your liberal distribution unto them and unto everyone,

¹⁴ and in their prayer for you, for they love you because of the eminent grace of God in you.

¹⁵ Thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift.