Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer, A Psalm and Song of David.

¹ ¶ Praise doth rest in thee, O God, in Sion and unto thee shall the vow be performed.

² O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

³ Words of iniquity overwhelmed me, but thou shalt purge away our rebellion.

⁴ Blessed is the man whom thou dost choose and cause to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple.

⁵ With tremendous things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our saving health, who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those that are afar off upon the sea:

⁶ ¶ Thou art he who doth establish the mountains by thy strength, being girded with valour:

⁷ He who stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the Gentiles.

⁸ They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy wonders; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.

⁹ Thou dost visit the earth, and when thou hast caused it to want, thou dost greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water; thou dost prepare their grain, according to thy will.

¹⁰ Thou dost water its rows abundantly; thou dost settle its furrows; thou dost make it soft with showers of rain; thou dost bless its sprouting.

¹¹ Thou dost crown the year with thy goodness, and thy clouds distill fatness.

¹² They fall upon the habitations of the wilderness; and the hills gird themselves with happiness.

¹³ The plains clothe themselves with sheep, and the valleys cover themselves with grain; they give shouts of triumph, they even sing.

1 ¶ The word of the LORD that went to Joel the son of Pethuel.

² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the earth. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your sons of it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons another generation.

⁴ That which the palmerworm has left the locust has eaten; and that which the locust has left the cankerworm has eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten.

⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a people has come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the molars of a great lion.

⁷ He has laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare and cast it away; its branches are made white.

⁸ ¶ Lament like a young woman girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

⁹ The grain offering and the drink offering of the house of the LORD has perished; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field was destroyed, the land mourns; for the wheat was destroyed; the new wine was dried up, the oil perished.

¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is lost.

¹² The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has perished; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, have withered: therefore joy has withered away from the sons of men.

¹³ Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the present and the drink offering is taken away from the house of your God.

¹⁴ ¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the LORD your God and cry unto the LORD.

¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, the joy and the gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed has rotted under their clods, the storehouses were laid desolate, the barns were destroyed for the wheat is withered.

¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep are condemned.

¹⁹ O LORD, to thee will I cry for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰ The beasts of the field also cry unto thee for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the meadows of the wilderness.

3 ¶ This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

² For there shall be men who are lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, evil speakers, disobedient to their parents, unthankful, impure,

³ without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, without temperance, without meekness, without goodness,

⁴ traitors, rash, puffed up, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,

⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with various lusts,

⁷ ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁸ And in the manner that Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt understanding, reprobate concerning the faith.

⁹ But they shall not prevail, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as that of those also was.