Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

2 ¶ Blow the shofar in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble for the day of the LORD comes, for it is near at hand;

² a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of shadow that spreads itself upon the mountains as the dawn: a people great and strong; there has not ever been the like, neither shall there be any more after him, even to the years of many generations.

¹² ¶ Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping, and with mourning:

¹³ and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in mercy, and he does repent of chastisement.

¹⁴ Who knows if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him even a present and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

¹⁵ Blow the shofar in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

¹⁶ gather the people, sanctify the meeting, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

¹⁷ Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Forgive thy people, O LORD, and do not give thine heritage to reproach that the Gentiles should rule over her: why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

58 ¶ Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up thy voice like a shofar and preach to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sin.

² That they seek me daily and want to know my ways, as people that do righteousness and have not forsaken the rights of their God: they ask me of the rights of righteousness and desire to approach God.

³ ¶ Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.

⁴ Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶ Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?

⁸ ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall gather thee.

⁹ Then shalt thou call, and thou shalt hear the LORD; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

¹⁰ and if thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

¹¹ And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹² And they shall build up out of thee the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the fallen foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹ ¶ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy mercy; according unto the multitude of thy compassion eradicate my rebellion.

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my rebellion; and my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou be declared just in thy word and pure in thy judgment.

⁵ Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me.

⁶ Behold, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts, and in the secret things thou hast made me to know wisdom.

⁷ ¶ Remove the sin in me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

⁹ Hide thy face from my sins and eradicate all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy saving health, and thy spirit of liberty shall uphold me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

¹⁴ ¶ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

¹⁶ For thou dost not desire sacrifice or else would I give it; thou dost not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

²⁰ Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did exhort you by us; we beseech you in Christ’s name, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹ For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

6 ¶ We then, as workers together with him, exhort you also that ye have not received the grace of God in vain.

² (For he saith, I have heard thee in an acceptable time, and in the day of saving health I have succoured thee; behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of saving health.)

³ Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry not be blamed,

⁴ But in all things showing ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses,

⁵ in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,

⁶ in chastity, in knowledge, in meekness, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned charity,

⁷ in the word of truth, in the power of God through the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

⁸ through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet as men of the truth;

⁹ as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, but, behold, we live; as chastened, but not killed;

¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

6 ¶ Take heed not to do your alms {lit. acts of mercy} before men, to be seen of them; otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father who is in the heavens.

² Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.

³ But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth

⁴ that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret, he shall reward thee openly.

⁵ ¶ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.

⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret shall reward thee openly.

¹⁶ ¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They already have their reward.

¹⁷ But thou, when thou dost fast, anoint thine head, and wash thy face

¹⁸ that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.

¹⁹ ¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal;

²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal;

²¹ for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.