Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 ¶ Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in the horn of the sons of oil;
2 and he had fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Therefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned, nor hoed; but briers and thorns shall come up there; I will even command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of the hosts is the house of Israel and every man of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim, {lilies} A testimony of Asaph: A Psalm.
1 ¶ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.
2 In the presence of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us.
8 ¶ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
9 Thou didst prepare room before it and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the earth.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and its boughs were like the cedars of God.
11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all those who pass by the way pluck her?
13 The boar out of the wood wastes it, and the wild beast of the field devours it.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of the hosts: look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine
15 and the vineyard which thy right hand has planted and the branch that thou didst make strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself,
18 so we will not go back from thee. Thou shalt quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O LORD God of the hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians attempted to do and were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.
31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish together with the disobedient, having received the spies with peace.
32 ¶ And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthae, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets,
33 who by faith won kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, recovered from infirmities, were made valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of foreign enemies;
35 women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection;
36 and others experienced cruel mockings and scourgings, and added to this, bonds and imprisonment;
37 they were stoned; they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; poor, afflicted, mistreated,
38 (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, approved by testimony of faith, received not the promise,
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
12 ¶ Therefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, leaving behind all the weight of the sin which surrounds us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who having been offered joy, endured the cross,{Gr. stauros-stake} despising the shame and was seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
49 I am come to cast fire into the earth; and what do I desire, except that it be kindled?
50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am anguished until it is accomplished!
51 Think ye that I am come to the earth to give peace? No, I tell you, but rather division;
52 for from now on there shall be five in one house divided: three against two and two against three.
53 The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter- in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
54 ¶ And he said also to the people, When ye see the cloud rising out of the west, straightway ye say, A shower comes, and so it is.
55 And when the south wind blows, ye say, There will be heat, and it comes to pass.
56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
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