Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Behold, God is my salvation!
I will trust and will not be afraid.
For the Lord Adonai is my strength
and my song.
He also has become my salvation.”[a]
3 With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you will say:
“Give thanks to Adonai.
Proclaim His Name!
Declare His works to the peoples,
so they remember His exalted Name.
5 Sing to Adonai, for He has done gloriously.
Let this be known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, inhabitant of Zion!
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
4 Hear this, you who trample the poor,
destroying the afflicted of the land
5 saying: ‘When will the New Moon be over,
so we may sell grain?
Or Shabbat, so we may open the wheat market?
—Let’s reduce the ephah measure
and increase the shekel,
cheat with deceitful balances,
6 buy the poor for silver,
the needy for a pair of sandals!
We’ll even sell the refuse of the grain!’”
7 Adonai swore by the Pride of Jacob:
“Never will I forget all their deeds!
8 Will not the land tremble over this?
Will not all who dwell in it mourn?
Yes, it will rise up like all the Nile
—it will surge and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.”
9 “It will be in that day”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“I will make the sun go down at noon,
yes, I will darken the earth in daylight.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all your songs into a dirge.[a]
I will pull up sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son—
its end a bitter day.”[b]
11 “Behold, days are coming”
—declares my Lord Adonai—
“when I will send a famine on the land
—not a famine of bread
nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of Adonai.[c]
12 So people will wander from sea to sea
and roam from north to east,
searching for the word of Adonai,
but they will not find it.
9 Now about this service to the kedoshim, it is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you— 2 for I know your eagerness. I boast about it to the Macedonians, that Achaia has been preparing for a year already; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not be in vain in this case, so that you may be prepared, just as I kept saying. 4 Otherwise, if any Macedonians were to come and find you unprepared, we—not to mention you—would be put to shame in this undertaking. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on to you and arrange ahead of time your generous gift that had been promised beforehand, so that it would be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.
Sowing and Reaping Generosity
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. [a] 7 Let each one give as he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion—for God loves a cheerful giver. [b] 8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that by always having enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He scattered widely, He gave to the poor;
His righteousness endures forever.”[c]
10 Now the One who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. [d] 11 You will be enriched in everything for all generosity, which through us brings about thanksgiving to God. 12 For this service of giving is not only supplying the needs of the kedoshim, but is also overflowing with many thanksgivings to God. 13 Because of the evidence of this service, they praise God for the obedience of your affirmation of the Good News of Messiah and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to everyone. 14 And in their prayer for you, they long for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.