Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Lo! God is my saviour, I shall do faithfully, and I shall not dread. For why the Lord is my strength and my praising, and he is made to me into health. (Lo! God is my Saviour, I shall do faithfully, and I shall not fear. For the Lord is my strength and my praising, and he is my deliverance, or my salvation.)
3 Ye shall draw waters with joy of the wells of the saviour. (Yea, with joy, ye shall draw water from the wells of salvation.)
4 And ye shall say in that day, Acknowledge ye to the Lord, and call ye his name into help; make ye known his findings among peoples; have ye mind, that his name is high. (And ye shall say on that day, Praise ye the Lord, and call ye on his name for help/and call ye his name for help; make ye known his deeds among the peoples; remember that his name is the highest of all.)
5 Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done worshipfully (for he hath done honourably/for he hath done magnificently); tell ye this [out] in all [the] earth.
6 Thou dwelling of Zion, make full out joy, and praise; for why the Holy of Israel is great in the midst of thee. (O inhabitants of Zion, rejoice, and praise ye; for the great Holy One of Israel is in thy midst.)
4 Hear ye this thing, which all-break a poor man, and make needy men of the land for to fail; (Hear ye this, which shall altogether break the poor, and shall make the needy of the land to fail;)
5 and ye say, When shall harvest pass, and we shall sell merchandises? and the sabbath, and we shall open (our) wheat (again)? that we make less the measure, and increase the shekel, and that we set privily guileful balances; (and ye say, When shall the new moon pass, and then we can sell our corn again? and the sabbath end, and we can sell our wheat again? and we can make the measure less, and increase the shekel, and we can secretly, or privately, set deceptive balances, or scales, again;)
6 that we wield for silver needy men, and poor men for shoes, and we sell outcastings of wheat? (and we can buy the needy for some silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and we can sell the refuse of our wheat again?)
7 The Lord swore against the pride of Jacob, (yea,) I shall not forget till to the end all the works of them. (The Lord swore by the pride of Jacob, Yea, I shall never forget any of their works, or their deeds.)
8 Whether on this thing, the earth shall not be moved together, and each dweller thereof shall mourn? And it shall go up as all the flood, and shall be cast out, and shall float away, as the strand of Egypt. (For on this matter, shall not the earth be altogether moved, and each of its inhabitants shall mourn? It all shall go up like a river, and shall be thrown out, and shall flow away, like the River of Egypt, that is, the Nile.)
9 And it shall be, saith the Lord, in that day the sun shall go down in midday, and I shall make the earth to be dark in the day of light. (And it shall be, saith the Lord, on that day the sun shall go down at midday, and I shall make the earth to be dark in the light of day.)
10 And I shall convert your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into wailing; and I shall bring in on each back of you a sackcloth, and on each head of you baldness; and I shall put it as the mourning of [an] one begotten son, and the last things thereof as a bitter day. (And I shall turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into wailing; and I shall put a sackcloth on every back, and baldness on every head; and I shall make it like the mourning for an only son, and the last things, or the end, of it shall be like a bitter day.)
11 Lo! the days come, saith the Lord [God], and I shall send out hunger into (the) earth; not hunger of bread, neither thirst of water, but of hearing the word of God (Lo! the days shall come, saith the Lord God, and I shall send out hunger, or famine, into the earth; not a hunger for food, or a thirst for water, but a hunger for hearing the word of God.)
12 And they shall be moved (al)together from the sea till to the sea, and from the north till to the east they shall compass (about), seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find. (And they shall wander about from the Dead Sea unto the Mediterranean Sea, and they shall go all around, from the north unto the east, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.)
9 For of the ministry that is made to holy men, it is to me of plenty to write to you.
2 For I know your [ready] will, for the which I have glory of you with Macedonians, for also Achaia is ready from a year passed, and your love hath stirred full many.
3 And we have sent brethren, that this thing that we glory of you, be not voided in this part, that as I said, ye be ready.
4 Lest when Macedonians come with me, and find you unready, we be shamed, that we say you not/that we saw you not, in this substance.
5 Therefore I guessed necessary to pray brethren, that they come before to you, and make ready this promised blessing to be ready, so as blessing, and not as avarice.
6 For I say this thing [This thing forsooth I say], he that soweth scarcely, shall also reap scarcely; and he that soweth in blessings, shall reap also of blessings.
7 Each man as he casted in his heart [Each man as he cast in his heart], not of heaviness, or of need; for God loveth a glad giver.
8 And God is mighty to make all grace abound in you, that ye in all things evermore have all sufficience, and abound into all good work [that ye, in all things evermore having all sufficience, abound into all good work];
9 as it is written, He dealed abroad, he gave to poor men, his rightwiseness dwelleth without end [his rightwiseness dwelleth into without end].
10 And he that ministereth seed to the sower, shall give also bread to eat, and he shall multiply your seed, and make much the increasings of fruits of your rightwiseness;[a]
11 that in all things ye made rich wax plenteous into all simpleness [that in all things made rich abound into all simpleness], which worketh by us doing of thankings to God.
12 For the ministry of this office not only filleth those things that fail to holy men, but also multiplieth many thankings to God [but also aboundeth by many in doing of thankings to the Lord],
13 by the proving of this ministry, which glorify God in the obedience of your acknowledging in the gospel of Christ, and in simpleness of communication into them and into all [others],
14 and in the beseeching of them for you, that desire you for the excellent grace of God in you.
15 I do thankings to God of the gift of him, that may not be told.[b]
2001 by Terence P. Noble