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.

4 ¶ If thou wilt return unto me, O Israel, said the LORD, thou shalt have rest; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then thou shalt not go into captivity.

² And thou shalt swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the Gentiles shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³ ¶ For thus has the LORD said to every man of Judah and of Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.

⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, 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 so that no one can quench it because of the evil of your doings.

⁵ ¶ Declare ye in Judah and publish in Jerusalem and say, Blow ye the shofar in the land; cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.

⁶ Set up the banner in Zion: come together, do not delay: for I bring evil from the north wind, and a great destruction.

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

⁸ For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth; lament and howl; for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

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

¹⁰ (Then I said, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; when the sword reaches unto the soul.)

2 ¶ But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who covertly shall bring in destructive sects and shall deny the Lord that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

² And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed;

³ ¶ and in covetousness they shall make merchandise of you with feigned words, upon whom the condemnation from a long time ago does not delay, and their perdition does not sleep.

⁴ For if God did not forgive the angels that sinned, but cast them down into the deepest abyss {Gr. Tartarus} and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

⁵ and if he did not forgive the old world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

⁶ and if he condemned by destruction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, turning them into ashes, making them an example unto those that after should live without fear and reverence of God;

⁷ ¶ and delivered just Lot, who was persecuted by those abominable people because of their nefarious conversation;

⁸ (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, afflicted his righteous soul from day to day with the deeds of those unjust people);

⁹ the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished;

¹⁰ ¶ and chiefly those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise dominion; presumptuous, arrogant, they are not afraid to speak evil of the higher powers;