Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees.

¹ ¶ In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he answered me.

² Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.

³ What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?

⁴ Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

⁵ ¶ Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!

⁶ My soul has long dwelt with those that hate peace.

⁷ I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

1 ¶ Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,

² Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The LORD God of the heavens has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³ Who is there among you of all his people? Let God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem.

⁴ And whoever may remain of all the places where they remained a stranger, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts, with freewill gifts for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

⁵ ¶ Then rose up the heads of the families of Judah and of Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, of all those whose spirit God woke up to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

⁶ And all those that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver and of gold, with goods and with beasts and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.

⁷ Also Cyrus, the king, brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put them in the house of his god.

⁸ Even those did Cyrus, king of Persia, bring forth by the hand of Mithredath, the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

⁹ And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, twenty-nine knives,

¹⁰ thirty basins of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and another thousand vessels.

¹¹ All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar cause to be brought up with those that came up from the captivity of Babylon unto Jerusalem.

¹² ¶ For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with carnal wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly towards you.

¹³ For we write no other things unto you than what ye read or also know, and I trust ye shall know them even to the end

¹⁴ as also ye have known in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ ¶ And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before that ye might have a second grace

¹⁶ and to pass by you into Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be sent forward to Judaea.

¹⁷ When I, therefore, was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that of me there should be yes, yes, and no, no?

¹⁸ But God is faithful that our word toward you has not been yes and no.

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, has not been yes and no, but in him was yes.