Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.

14 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves, they have done abominable works: there is none that doeth good.

² Jehovah looked down from the heavens upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

³ They have all gone aside, they are together become corrupt: there is none that doeth good, not even one.

⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, eating up my people [as] they eat bread? They call not upon Jehovah.

⁵ There were they in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous.

⁶ Ye have shamed the counsel of the afflicted, because Jehovah [was] his refuge.

⁷ Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Jehovah turneth again the captivity of his people, Jacob shall be glad, Israel shall rejoice.

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 visit thee, since thou thyself hast trained them to be princes in chief over thee? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

²² And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, [and] thy heels have suffered violence.

²³ Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

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

²⁵ This shall be thy lot, thy measured portion from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and confided in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore will I also turn thy skirts over thy face, and thy shame shall be seen.

²⁷ Thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy fornication, on the hills, in the fields,—thine abominations, have I seen. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? after how long a time yet?

1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ, according to [the] command of God our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus our hope,

² to Timotheus, [my] true child in faith: grace, mercy, peace, from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ Even as I begged thee to remain in Ephesus, [when I was] going to Macedonia, that thou mightest enjoin some not to teach other doctrines,

⁴ nor to turn their minds to fables and interminable genealogies, which bring questionings rather than [further] God's dispensation, which [is] in faith.

⁵ But the end of what is enjoined is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith;

⁶ which [things] some having missed, have turned aside to vain discourse,

⁷ desiring to be law-teachers, not understanding either what they say or concerning what they [so] strenuously affirm.

⁸ Now we know that the law [is] good if any one uses it lawfully,

⁹ knowing this, that law has not its application to a righteous person, but to [the] lawless and insubordinate, to [the] impious and sinful, to [the] unholy and profane, to smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers; to murderers,

¹⁰ fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers; and if any other thing is opposed to sound teaching,

¹¹ according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, with which *I* have been entrusted.