Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Security of him who trusts in Jehovah.

⁹ Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words. ¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; for because of ^[a]swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right; ¹¹ for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah. ¹² Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, ^[b]even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.

¹³ And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴ In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. ¹⁵ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of ^[c]gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah. ¹⁷ They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you. ¹⁸ For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that he should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked ^[d]my word, and heard it? ¹⁹ Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have ^[e]executed, and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall ^[f]understand it perfectly. ²¹ I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied. ²² But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

⁸ I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love. ⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich. ¹⁰ And herein I give my judgment: for this is expedient for you, who were the first to make a beginning a year ago, not only to do, but also to will. ¹¹ But now complete the doing also; that as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also out of your ability. ¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according as a man hath, not according as he hath not. ¹³ For I say not this that others may be eased and ye distressed; ¹⁴ but by equality: your abundance being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become a supply for your want; that there may be equality: ¹⁵ as it is written, ^[a]He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack.