Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ In thee, O LORD, have I waited; let me not be forever put to shame.

² Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape; incline thine ear unto me and save me.

³ Be thou my strong habitation unto which I may continually resort; thou hast given a commandment that I should be saved because thou art my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the perverse and violent man.

⁵ For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD; thou art my security from my youth.

⁶ By thee have I been sustained from the womb; thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels; my praise has been continually of thee.

6 ¶ O ye sons of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem and blow the shofar in Tekoa and set up as a sign smoke in Bethhaccerem; for evil appears out of the north wind and great destruction.

² I shall liken the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

³ The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed each one his portion.

⁴ Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up towards the south. Woe unto us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

⁵ Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

⁶ For thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Hew ye down trees and cast a mount against Jerusalem; this is the city that all of her is to be visited; there is violence in the midst of her.

⁷ As the waters never cease to flow from a fountain, so her wickedness never ceases to flow; injustice and robbery is heard in her; in my presence continually, sickness and wounds.

⁸ Chastise Jerusalem lest peradventure my soul be disjointed from thee, lest peradventure I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

⁹ ¶ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.

¹⁰ To whom shall I speak, and give warning that they may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken, behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

¹¹ Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I have worked hard to hold myself in from pouring it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for the husband with the wife shall also be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

¹² And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

¹³ For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them each one is given to greed; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.

¹⁴ They treat also the destruction of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹⁵ Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore, they shall fall among those that shall fall: at the time that I visit them they shall fall, saith the LORD.

¹⁶ Thus hath the LORD said, Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

¹⁷ Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the shofar. But they said, We will not hearken.

¹⁸ ¶ Therefore hear, ye Gentiles, and know, O congregation of Gentiles.

¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts because they have not hearkened unto my words, and they hated my law.

³ For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied in your souls and faint.

⁴ ¶ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, fighting against sin.

⁵ And ye have quite forgotten the consolation which speaks unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him:

⁶ for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges everyone whom he receives as a son.

⁷ If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?

⁸ But if ye are without chastisement, of which all the sons are partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.

⁹ Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; is it not much better to be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and we shall live?

¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us as it seemed good unto them, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

¹¹ It is true that no chastening at present seems to be cause for joy, but rather for grief; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised by it.

¹² Therefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

¹³ and make straight steps unto your feet, so that which is lame will not turn out of the way, but let it rather be healed.

¹⁴ Follow peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ looking diligently that no one deviate from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up impede you, and thereby many be defiled,

¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

¹⁷ For ye know how that afterward, desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.