Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever.

² Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

³ and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

⁴ They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in.

⁵ Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

⁶ Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

⁷ And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

⁸ Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!

⁹ For he satisfies the soul that is destitute and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

⁴³ Who is wise and will observe these things and shall understand the mercies of the LORD?

9 ¶ Do not rejoice, O Israel, for joy, as the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved the salary of a harlot upon every threshing floor.

² The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

³ They shall not remain in the land of the LORD; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and to Assyria where they shall eat unclean food.

⁴ They shall not pour out wine unto the LORD, neither shall he take pleasure in their sacrifices; as the bread of mourners shall they be unto them; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall not enter into the house of the LORD because of their soul.

⁵ What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

⁶ For, behold, they have left because of the destruction; Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall possess in inheritance that which is desirable of their silver; thorns shall grow up in their dwellings.

⁷ ¶ The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is a fool, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

⁸ The watchman of Ephraim regarding my God, the prophet, is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, hatred in the house of his God.

⁹ They have arrived at the depths, they have corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sin.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the early fruit of the fig tree in her beginning; but they went in unto Baalpeor and separated themselves unto shame and made themselves as abominable as that which they loved.

¹¹ ¶ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth even from the womb and from the conception.

¹² Though they bring up their sons, yet I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

¹³ Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his sons to the murderer.

¹⁴ Give them, O LORD, that which thou must give them; give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness was in Gilgal, for there I took a dislike to them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will never love them again: all their princes are disloyal.

¹⁶ Ephraim was smitten, their root is dried up; they shall bear no more fruit; even though they bring forth, yet I will slay even the desirable fruit of their womb.

¹⁷ My God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the Gentiles.

¹⁷ ¶ This I say, therefore, and require in the Lord that from now on ye not walk as the other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their own senses,

¹⁸ having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart,

¹⁹ who, after losing all sense of feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰ But ye have not so learned of the Christ,

²¹ if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,

²² that ye put off everything concerning the old way of life, that is, the old man who corrupts himself according to deceitful desires,

²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your understanding

²⁴ and that ye put on the new man, which is created in conformity to God in righteousness and in the holiness of the truth.