Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³ And you will draw water from the wells of salvation in joy. ⁴ And you will say on that day,

⁴ Hear this, those who trample on the poor and who annihilate the afflicted of the land, ⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over, so that we can sell grain? And the Sabbath, so that we can open the grain bins, that we can make the ephah small and make the shekel large, and can practice deceit with a set of scales of deceit? ⁶ That we can^[a] buy the powerless with silver and the poor for the sake of a pair of sandals, and we can sell the waste of the grain?” ⁷ Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds! ⁸ On account of this, will not the land tremble and will not every living thing in it mourn? And all of it will rise like the Nile and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt. ⁹ And then in that day,” declares^[b] my Lord Yahweh, “I^[c] will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the land on a day of light. ¹⁰ And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day. ¹¹ Look, the days are coming,” declares^[d] my Lord Yahweh, “when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread and not a thirst for water, but of hearing^[e] the words of Yahweh! ¹² And they will wander from sea to sea and from the north and to the east. They will roam about to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it!

God Loves a Cheerful Giver

9 For it is unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the ministry to the saints, ² because I know your readiness to help, concerning which I keep on boasting to the Macedonians about you, that Achaia has been ready to help since last year, and your zeal has stirred up the majority of them. ³ But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you would not prove to be empty in this case, so that you may be prepared just as I was saying, ⁴ lest somehow if Macedonians should come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to speak of you^[a]—would be humiliated in connection with this project. ⁵ Therefore I considered it necessary to urge the brothers that they should go on ahead to you and make arrangements in advance for your generous gift that was promised previously, so this would be prepared as a generous gift and not as grudgingly granted.

⁶ Now the point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly^[b] or from compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to cause all grace to abound to you, so that in everything at all times, because you^[c] have enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work. ⁹ Just as it is written,

¹⁰ Now the one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed, and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow, ¹¹ being made rich in every way for all generosity, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, ¹² because the service of this ministry is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but also is overflowing through many expressions of thanksgiving to God. ¹³ Through the proven character of this service they will glorify God because of the submission of your confession to the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your participation toward them and toward everyone, ¹⁴ and they are longing for you in their prayers for you, because of the surpassing grace of God to you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!