Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.

¹ ¶ His foundation is in mountains of holiness.

² The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

³ Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

⁴ ¶ I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those that know me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this one was born there.

⁵ And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man were born in her; and the highest himself shall establish her.

⁶ The LORD shall count when he writes up the peoples that this one was born there. Selah.

⁷ And singers and players on instruments in her shall say: all my springs are in thee.

3 ¶ For, behold, in those days and in that time when I shall cause the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem to end,

² I will gather together all the Gentiles, and will cause them to descend into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there I will enter into judgment with them because of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

³ And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they might drink.

⁴ Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? will ye render me a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense upon your own head;

⁵ because ye have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my precious and beautiful things

⁶ and ye have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border.

⁷ Behold, I will raise them out of the place where ye have sold them and will return your recompense upon your own head:

⁸ and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD has spoken it.

¹² ¶ Beloved, think it not strange when you are tried by fire (which is done to prove you) as though some strange thing happened unto you,

¹³ but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of the afflictions of the Christ, so that also in the revelation of his glory, ye may rejoice in triumph.

¹⁴ If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you; certainly on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.

¹⁵ So let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as desirous of the things of others.

¹⁶ But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.

¹⁷ For it is time that the judgment begins from the house of God; and if it first begins with us, what shall the end be of those that do not obey the gospel of God?

¹⁸ And if the righteous are saved with difficulty, where shall the unfaithful and the sinner appear?

¹⁹ Therefore, let those that are afflicted according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto him as unto a faithful Creator, doing good.