Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees.

¹ ¶ When the LORD shall turn again the captivity of Zion, we shall be like those that dream.

² Then our mouth shall be filled with laughter and our tongue with singing; then they shall say among the Gentiles, The LORD has done great things with them.

³ The LORD has done great things with us, of which we shall be glad.

⁴ ¶ Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

⁵ Those that sow with tears shall reap with joy.

⁶ He that goes forth and weeps, bearing the precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

⁸ ¶ Bring forth the people that is blind that have eyes and the deaf that have ears.

⁹ Let all the Gentiles be gathered together as one, and let the peoples be joined; who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear and say, It is truth.

¹⁰ Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my slave whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

¹¹ I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

¹² I have declared and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

¹³ Even before the day was I existed; and there is no one that can deliver out of my hand; if I work, who shall hinder it?

¹⁴ ¶ Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon and caused fugitives to descend unto all of them and the clamour of Chaldeans in the ships.

¹⁵ I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

²⁵ Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labour and fellowsoldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my needs.

²⁶ For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness, because ye had heard that he had been sick

²⁷ For indeed he was sick near unto death, but God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸ I sent him, therefore, the more carefully, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful.

²⁹ Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and esteem such

³⁰ because for the work of the Christ he was near unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

3 ¶ It remains, my brethren, that ye rejoice in the Lord. It does not bother me to write the same things to you, and for you it is safe.