Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.” 3 Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4 In that day you will say, “Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Declare his doings among the peoples! Proclaim that his name is exalted! 5 Sing to Yahweh, for he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth! 6 Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”
4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy,
and cause the poor of the land to fail,
5 saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat,
making the ephah[a] small, and the shekel[b] large,
and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
6 that we may buy the poor for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and sell the sweepings with the wheat?’”
7 Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob,
“Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Won’t the land tremble for this,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it?
Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River;
and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt.
9 It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh,
“that I will cause the sun to go down at noon,
and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies,
and baldness on every head.
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and its end like a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh,
“that I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing Yahweh’s words.
12 They will wander from sea to sea,
and from the north even to the east;
they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word,
and will not find it.
9 It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to those of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for the past year. Your zeal has stirred up very many of them. 3 But I have sent the brothers so that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared, 4 lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting. 5 I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.
6 Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor.
His righteousness remains forever.”(A)
10 Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 you being enriched in everything for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. 12 For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God, 13 seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of Christ and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all, 14 while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15 Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!
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