Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

TZADHE

⁵ “Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days which you will not believe though it is told you. ⁶ For, behold,^[a] I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. ⁷ They are feared and dreaded. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. ⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour. ⁹ All of them come for violence. Their hordes face forward. They gather prisoners like sand. ¹⁰ Yes, they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they build up an earthen ramp and take it. ¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. They are indeed guilty, whose strength is their god.”

¹² Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh my God,^[b] my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed them for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish. ¹³ You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he, ¹⁴ and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things that have no ruler over them? ¹⁵ He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad. ¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious and his food is good. ¹⁷ Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,^[a] to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: ² Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. ⁵ Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; ⁶ and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, perseverance; and in perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and in godliness, brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers,^[b] be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. ¹¹ For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.