Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

² I will say of the LORD, He is my hope and my fortress: my God; in him will I secure myself.

³ Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the mortal pestilence.

⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings thou shalt be secure: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

⁵ Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day,

⁶ nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

¹⁴ Because he has set his will upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known my name.

¹⁵ He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and glorify him.

¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my saving health.

⁹ ¶ My heart is broken within me because of the prophets, all my bones shake; I was like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, before the LORD, and before the words of his holiness.

¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; for because of the oath the land is deserted; the booths of the wilderness are dried up, and their course was evil, and their force was not right.

¹¹ For both prophet and priest are feigned; even in my house I have found their wickedness, said the LORD.

¹² Therefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

¹³ And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴ I have also seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: they committed adultery and walked by lies; they strengthened also the hands of evildoers, that no one is converted from his malice; they are all of them unto me as Sodom and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

¹⁵ Therefore, thus hath the LORD of the hosts said against those prophets: Behold, I will cause them to eat wormwood and make them drink the waters of gall, for from the prophets of Jerusalem is hypocrisy gone forth upon all the land.

¹⁶ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷ They say boldly unto those that stir me to anger, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto anyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

¹⁸ For who has stood in the secret of the LORD and has seen and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and heard it?

¹⁹ Behold, that the whirlwind of the LORD shall go forth with fury, and the whirlwind which is ready shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of the LORD shall not return until he has executed and until he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the last of the days ye shall understand it with understanding.

²¹ I did not send those prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in my secret, they would also have caused my people to hear my words, and they would have caused them to return from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.

⁸ I speak not as commanding, but by occasion of the diligence of others and to prove the sincerity of your charity.

⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be enriched.

¹⁰ And in this I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who began not only to do, but also to be diligent a year ago.

¹¹ Now therefore finish the doing of it that as there was a readiness to will, so there may also be a performance out of that which ye have.

¹² For if there is first a willing desire, it is accepted according to what a person has and not according to what they do not have.

¹³ For I mean not that others be eased and ye burdened,

¹⁴ but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality:

¹⁵ As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack.