Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful;

² but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?

²¹ What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee? For thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee. Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

²² And if thou say in thine heart, “Why come these things upon me?”—for the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels made bare.

²³ Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴ “Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵ This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from Me,” saith the Lord; “because thou hast forgotten Me, and trusted in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore will I uncover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.

²⁷ I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be?”

¹⁷ And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.

¹⁸ For ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain way of living which ye received by tradition from your fathers,

¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,

²⁰ who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

²¹ By Him ye believe in God, who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

²² Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently,

²³ being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever;

²⁴ for “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away;

²⁵ but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.

2 Therefore laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking,