Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

⁶ Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep; O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.

⁷ How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.

⁸ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the bounty of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.

⁹ For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.

¹⁰ O continue Thy lovingkindness unto them that know Thee, and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

¹⁹ “But I said, ‘How shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?’ And I said, ‘Thou shalt call Me “My Father,” and shalt not turn away from Me.’

²⁰ Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” saith the Lord.

²¹ A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God.

²² “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” “Behold, we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God.

²³ Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴ For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth — their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵ We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² Nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

⁴ The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Defraud ye not one the other, unless it be with consent for a time only, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not through your lack of selfrestraint.

⁶ But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself am. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one in this manner and another in that.