Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is no one that does good.

² The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.

³ They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is no one that does good, no, not one.

⁴ ¶ The workers of iniquity certainly know this; those who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD.

⁵ There they were in great fear: for God is with the nation of the righteous.

⁶ Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because the LORD is his hope.

⁷ Oh that the saving health of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD turns back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, and behold those that come from the north wind: where is the flock that was given thee, the cattle of thy beauty?

²¹ What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? For thou hast taught them to be princes and as head over thee; shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail?

²² ¶ When thou shalt say in thine heart, Why do these things come upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare.

²³ Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Likewise ye also cannot do good, being taught to do evil.

²⁴ Therefore I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵ This shall be thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me said the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore I uncovered thy skirts before thy face, and thy shame was manifested.

²⁷ I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom upon the hills; in the same field I saw thine abominations. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean at last? How long then shall it be?

1 ¶ Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

² unto Timothy, true son in the faith, Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

³ Even as I besought thee to remain at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou might charge some that they not teach diverse doctrine,

⁴ nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which generate questions other than that the edification of God is by faith.

⁵ ¶ Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned:

⁶ from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vanity of words,

⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor from where they affirm.

⁸ But we know that the law is good, if a man uses it legitimately,

⁹ knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly sinners, for the evil and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

¹⁰ for fornicators, for homosexuals, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,

¹¹ according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.