Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.

14 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves, they have done abominable works: there is none that doeth good.

² Jehovah looked down from the heavens upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

³ They have all gone aside, they are together become corrupt: there is none that doeth good, not even one.

⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, eating up my people [as] they eat bread? They call not upon Jehovah.

⁵ There were they in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous.

⁶ Ye have shamed the counsel of the afflicted, because Jehovah [was] his refuge.

⁷ Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Jehovah turneth again the captivity of his people, Jacob shall be glad, Israel shall rejoice.

4 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, return unto me; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be a wanderer;

² —and thou shalt in truth, in justice, and in righteousness swear, [As] Jehovah liveth! and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³ For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴ Circumcise yourselves for Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵ Declare ye in Judah, and cause it to be heard in Jerusalem, and say, … and blow the trumpet in the land, cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced cities.

⁶ Set up a banner toward Zion; take to flight, stay not! For I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction.

⁷ The lion is come up from his thicket, the destroyer of the nations is on his way; he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate; thy cities shall be laid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸ For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl! for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned away from us.

⁹ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed.

¹⁰ And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

2 But there were false prophets also among the people, as there shall be also among you false teachers, who shall bring in by the bye destructive heresies, and deny the master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction;

² and many shall follow their dissolute ways, through whom the way of the truth shall be blasphemed.

³ And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not.

⁴ For if God spared not [the] angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness [to be] kept for judgment;

⁵ and spared not [the] old world, but preserved Noe, [the] eighth, a preacher of righteousness, having brought in [the] flood upon [the] world of [the] ungodly;

⁶ and having reduced [the] cities of Sodom and Gomorrha to ashes, condemned [them] with an overthrow, setting [them as] an example to those that should [afterwards] live an ungodly life;

⁷ and saved righteous Lot, distressed with the abandoned conversation of the godless,

⁸ (for the righteous man through seeing and hearing, dwelling among them, tormented [his] righteous soul day after day with [their] lawless works,)

⁹ [the] Lord knows [how] to deliver the godly out of trial, and to keep [the] unjust to [the] day of judgment [to be] punished;

¹⁰ and specially those who walk after the flesh in [the] lust of uncleanness, and despise lordship. Bold [are they], self-willed; they do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities: