Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
צ TSADDE
137 (A)Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are Your judgments.
138 (B)Your testimonies, which You have commanded,
Are righteous and very faithful.
139 (C)My zeal has [a]consumed me,
Because my enemies have forgotten Your words.
140 (D)Your word is very [b]pure;
Therefore Your servant loves it.
141 I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is (E)truth.
143 Trouble and anguish have [c]overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
144 The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.
The Lord’s Reply
5 “Look(A) among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
6 For indeed I am (B)raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty (C)nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses also are (D)swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their [a]chargers [b]charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the (E)eagle that hastens to eat.
9 “They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
11 Then his [c]mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
(F)Ascribing this power to his god.”
The Prophet’s Second Question
12 Are You not (G)from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, (H)You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for (I)correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore (J)they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is [d]sumptuous
And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?
Greeting the Faithful
1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and (A)apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have [a]obtained (B)like[b] precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 (C)Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His (D)divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him (E)who called us by glory and virtue, 4 (F)by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be (G)partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the [c]corruption that is in the world through lust.
Fruitful Growth in the Faith
5 But also for this very reason, (H)giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue (I)knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control [d]perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and (J)to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither [e]barren (K)nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is (L)shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent (M)to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.