Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁸ Because of my strong sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

¹⁹ Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people that comes from a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with vanities of a strange god?

²⁰ The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

²¹ For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am devastated; I am in darkness; astonishment has taken hold on me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then was there no medicine for the daughter of my people?

9 ¶ Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ ¶ O God, the Gentiles are come into thine inheritance; they have defiled the temple of thy holiness; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

² The dead bodies of thy slaves they have given to be food unto the fowls of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

³ They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

⁴ We are reproached by our neighbours, scorned, and derided by those that are round about us.

⁵ How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

⁶ ¶ Pour out thy wrath upon the Gentiles that do not know thee and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon thy name.

⁷ For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.

⁸ O remember not against us former iniquities; let thy tender mercies speedily meet us on the way, for we are very poor.

⁹ Help us, O God, our saving health, for the honor of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

2 ¶ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, suppli­cations, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men,

² for kings, and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and integrity.

³ For this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,

⁴ who desires that all men be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.

⁵ For there is only one God and likewise only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

⁶ who gave himself in ransom for all, the testimony of which was confirmed at the time,

⁷ of which I am ordained a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ and do not lie), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

16 ¶ And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

² And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou may no longer be steward.

³ Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord takes the stewardship away from me; I cannot dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴ I know what I shall do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

⁵ So he called each one of his lord’s debtors unto him and said unto the first, How much dost thou owe unto my lord?

⁶ And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.

⁷ Then said he to another, And how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and write eighty.

⁸ And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done discreetly; for the sons of this age are in their generation more prudent than the sons of light.

⁹ And I say unto you, Make friends unto yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when these fail, you may be received into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ He that is faithful with little is faithful also with much, and he that is unjust with little is unjust also with much.

¹¹ If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true?

¹² And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

¹³ No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.