Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 God truly is my salvation;
I will trust in him and be unafraid.
For the Lord is my strength and my source of courage;
he has been my salvation.
3 With joy you will draw water
from the fountain of salvation,
4 and you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
invoke his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing praise to the Lord for his mighty deeds;
let this be known throughout the entire world.
6 Cry out and shout for joy,
all of you who dwell on Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel.
Listen, You Who Crush the Poor
4 Hear this, you who crush the needy
and trample upon the poor of the land.
5 “When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“so that we may sell our grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may market our wheat?
Then we can make the bushel measure smaller
and increase the shekel-weight
by adjusting the scales fraudulently.
6 We can buy the poor man for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals;
we can even sell the refuse of the wheat.”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Never will I forget any of their deeds.
8 Will not the land tremble because of this?
Will not everyone mourn who dwells in it?
The whole earth will rise like the Nile,
swelling and then subsiding
like the River of Egypt.
I Will Turn Your Feasts into Mourning
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation.
I will make you cover your loins with sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make it like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.[a]
11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine upon the land,
not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
in search of the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
Chapter 9
Let the Offering Be Ready. 1 In regard to the ministry toward the saints, there really is no necessity for me to write to you. 2 For I am fully aware of your eagerness to help, which has been the subject of my boasting about you to the Macedonians, telling them that Achaia has been ready since last year. Your ardor has excited most of them.
3 Nevertheless, I am sending the brethren to ensure that our boasts about you may not seem to have been offered in vain. I want you to be as prepared as I said you would be. 4 For if I bring some Macedonians with me and they come to the realization that you are not prepared, it would be a source of shame to us—to say nothing of you—because of our confidence in you. 5 Therefore, I thought it necessary to encourage the brethren to go on to you ahead of us and arrange in advance for the gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a genuine gift and not as something that has been granted grudgingly.
God Loves a Cheerful Giver. 6 Remember this: if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, and if you sow generously, you will reap generously as well. 7 Each person should give as much as he has decided in his heart, not with reluctance or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to enrich you with an abundance of every grace, so that, with all of your needs provided for, you may be able to produce a surplus of good works. 9 As it is written,
“He scatters abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness lasts forever.”
10 Generosity Will Prompt Thanksgiving. The one who provides seed for sowing and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 Enriched in every way, you will be able to practice all your acts of generosity, which, through our intervention, will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 The administering of this public service not only helps to satisfy the needs of the saints but also overflows in countless acts of thanksgiving to God. 13 Through the evidence of such service, you are giving glory to God for your obedient profession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution to them and to all others as well. 14 At the same time, their hearts will go out to you in their prayers for you, because of the surpassing grace that God has bestowed upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.[a]
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