Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.

¹ ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?

² Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

³ The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,

⁵ which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

⁶ ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

⁷ Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

⁸ As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.

3 ¶ They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, shall he return unto her again? Is she not a land that is now completely polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, said the LORD.

² Lift up thine eyes unto the high places and see if there is anywhere thou hast not been ravished. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

³ Therefore the rain has been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and thou dost have a whore’s forehead, thou dost refuse to be ashamed.

⁴ Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

⁵ Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done as many evil things as thou could.

⁶ ¶ The LORD said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which rebellious Israel has done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

⁷ And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she did not return. And her rebellious sister Judah saw it.

⁸ And I saw when for all the causes by which rebellious Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her rebellious sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

⁹ And it came to pass through her judging her whoredom to be a light thing that the land became defiled and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

¹⁰ And yet for all this her rebellious sister Judah has never turned unto me with her whole heart, but untruthfully, said the LORD.

¹¹ And the LORD said unto me, The rebellious Israel has justified her soul in comparison to the treacherous Judah.

¹² ¶ Go and proclaim these words toward the north wind and say, Return, thou rebellious Israel, said the LORD and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, said the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

¹³ Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast rebelled against the LORD thy God and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not heard my voice, said the LORD.

¹⁴ Turn, O rebellious sons, said the LORD; for I am your Lord, and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

1 ¶ Paul, slave of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness;

² for the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the times of the ages

³ and has manifested in due times. It is his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

⁴ to Titus, true son in the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ, our Saviour.

⁵ ¶ For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou should correct that which is lacking and set in place elders in every city, as I had commanded thee:

⁶ ¶ He who is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who can not be accused of dissoluteness, nor insubordinate.

⁷ For the bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God; not arrogant, not quick to anger, not given to wine, not hurtful, not greedy of dishonest gain,

⁸ but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, temperate, just, holy, gentle,

⁹ holding fast the doctrine according to the faithful word, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.