2 Beth. The Lord hath cast down headlong, and hath not spared, all that was beautiful in Jacob: he hath destroyed in his wrath the strong holds of the virgin of Juda, and brought them down to the ground: he hath made the kingdom unclean, and the princes thereof.

10 Jod. The ancients of the daughter of Sion sit upon the ground, they have held their peace: they have sprinkled their heads with dust, they are girded with haircloth, the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

11 Caph. My eyes have failed with weeping, my bowels are troubled: my liver is poured out upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people, when the children, and the sucklings, fainted away in the streets of the city.

12 Lamed. They said to their mothers: Where is corn and wine? when they fainted away as the wounded in the streets of the city: when they breathed out their souls in the bosoms of their mothers.

13 Mem. To what shall I compare thee? or to what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? to what shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion? for great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?

14 Nun. Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee: and they have not laid open thy iniquity, to excite thee to penance: but they have seen for thee false revelations and banishments.

18 Sade. Their heart cried to the Lord upon the walls of the daughter of Sion: Let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of thy eye cease.

19 Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets.

R. (19b) Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

1b O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

3 Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

4 And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

5 And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

6 They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.

7 They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

20 Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.

21 Let not the humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

17 Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

5 And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him,

6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grieviously tormented.

7 And Jesus saith to him: I will come and heal him.

8 And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.

9 For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10 And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel.

11 And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven:

12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

13 And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour.

14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying, and sick of a fever:

15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered to them.

16 And when evening was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word: and all that were sick he healed:

17 That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Isaias, saying: He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases.

1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came, he and all his army against Jerusalem: and they surrounded it: and raised works round about it.

2 And the city was shut up and besieged till the eleventh year of king Sedecias,

3 The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

4 And a breach was made into the city: and all the men of war fled in the night between the two walls by the king’s garden, (now the Chaldees besieged the city round about,) and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the plains of the wilderness.

5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all the warriors that were with him were scattered, and left him:

6 So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Reblatha, and he gave judgment upon him.

7 And he slew the sons of Sedecias before his face, and he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought him to Babylon.

8 In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, that is, the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan commander of the army, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem.

9 And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every house he burnt with fire.

10 And all the army of the Chaldees, which was with the commander of the troops, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

11 And Nabuzardan the commander of the army, carried away the rest of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the common people.

12 But of the poor of the land he left some dressers of vines and husbandmen.

R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

1 Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:

2 On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

3 For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

4 How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

6 Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

17 Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

1 And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him:

2 And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

3 And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

8 Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, a and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Nohesta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

9 And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his father had done.

10 At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts.

11 And Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came to the city with his servants to assault it.

12 And Joachin king of Juda went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother, and his servants, and his nobles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign.

13 And he brought out from thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house: and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.

14 And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.

15 And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem into Babylon.

16 And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the artificers, and the smiths a thousand, all that were valiant men and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led them captives into Babylon.

17 And he appointed Matthanias his uncle in his stead: and called his name Sedecias.

R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

1b O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.

2 They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

3 They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.

4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

5 How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

8 Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

9 Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake:

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

23 Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

21 Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

24 Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock,

25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.

26 And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand,

27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.

28 And it came to pass when Jesus had fully ended these words, the people were in admiration at his doctrine.

29 For he was teaching them as one having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees.

1 Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people from afar. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he hath been mindful of my name.

2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me.

3 And he said to me: Thou art my servant Israel, for in thee will I glory.

4 And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength without cause and in vain: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.

5 And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, and Israel will not be gathered together: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.

6 And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.

R. (14) I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

1 Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:

2 Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up.

3 Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.

R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother’s womb.

14ab I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works.

R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

14c My soul knoweth right well.

15 My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.

R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

22 And when he had removed him, he raised them up David to be king: to whom giving testimony, he said: I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills.

23 Of this man’s seed God according to his promise, hath raised up to Israel a Saviour, Jesus:

24 John first preaching, before his coming, the baptism of penance to all the people of Israel.

25 And when John was fulfilling his course, he said: I am not he, whom you think me to be: but behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.

26 Men, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fear God, to you the word of this salvation is sent.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

76 You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

57 Now Elizabeth’s full time of being delivered was come, and she brought forth a son.

58 And her neighbours and kinsfolks heard that the Lord had shewed his great mercy towards her, and they congratulated with her.

59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by his father’s name Zachary.

60 And his mother answering, said: Not so; but he shall be called John.

61 And they said to her: There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

62 And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

63 And demanding a writing table, he wrote, saying: John is his name. And they all wondered.

64 And immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

65 And fear came upon all their neighbours; and all these things were noised abroad over all the hill country of Judea.

66 And all they that had heard them laid them up in their heart, saying: What an one, think ye, shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.

80 And the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit; and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

5 Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.

6 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

7 And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.

8 Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

9 And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:

10 Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root up, and pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant.

R. (6) Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength.

1 Of the sons of Jonadab, and the former captives. In thee, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion:

2 Deliver me in thy justice, and rescue me. Incline thy ear unto me, and save me.

R. Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength.

3 Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength: that thou mayst make me safe. For thou art my firmament and my refuge.

4a Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the sinner.

R. Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength.

5 For thou art my patience, O Lord: my hope, O Lord, from my youth;

6ab By thee have I been confirmed from the womb: from my mother’s womb thou art my protector.

R. Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength.

15ab My mouth shall shew forth thy justice; thy salvation all the day long.

17 Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth: and till now I will declare thy wonderful works.

R. Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength.

8 Whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now, though you see him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified;

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you.

11 Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify: when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories that should follow:

12 To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you they ministered those things which are now declared to you by them that have preached the gospel to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jn 1:7; Lk 1:17 He came to testify to the light, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth.

6 And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.

7 And they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.

8 And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God,

9 According to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord.

10 And all the multitude of the people was praying without, at the hour of incense.

11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the alter of incense.

12 And Zachary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

13 But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John:

14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity.

15 For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

16 And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.

9b When he heard of Theraca king of Ethiopia: Behold, he is come out to fight with thee: and was going against him, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:

10 Thus shall you say to Ezechias king of Juda: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest: and do not say: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

11 Behold thou hast heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries, how they have laid them waste: and canst thou alone be delivered?

14 And when Ezechias had received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and had read it, he went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord,

15 And he prayed in his sight, saying: O Lord God of Israel, who sitteth upon the cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kings of the earth: thou madest heaven and earth:

16 Incline thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to upbraid unto us the living God.

17 Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have destroyed nations, and the lands of them all.

18 And they have cast their gods into the fire: for they were not Rods, but the works of men’s hands of wood and stone, and they destroyed them.

19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou art the Lord the only God.

20 And Isaias the son of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.

21 This is the word, that the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged her head behind thy back.

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and that which shall be saved out of mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

32 Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.

33 By the way that he came, he shall return: and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.

34 And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for David my servant’s sake.

35a And it came to pass that night, that an angel of the Lord came, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand.

36 And Sennacherib king of the Assyrians departing went away, and he returned and abode in Ninive.

R. (9d) God upholds his city for ever.

2 Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

3ab With the joy of the whole earth is mount Sion founded.

R. God upholds his city for ever.

3cd On the sides of the north, the city of the great king.

4 In her houses shall God be known, when he shall protect her.

R. God upholds his city for ever.

10 We have received thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

11 According to thy name, O God, so also is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of justice.

R. God upholds his city for ever.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

12 I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

6 Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you.

12 All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

13 Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.

14 How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!

5 And he went through all the land: and going up to Samaria, he besieged it three years.

6 And in the ninth year of Osee, the king of the Assyrians took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria: and he placed them in Hala and Habor by the river of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.

7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharao king of Egypt, and they worshipped strange gods.

8 And they walked according to the way of the nations which the Lord had destroyed in the sight of the children of Israel and of the kings of Israel: because they had done in like manner.

13 And the Lord testified to them in Israel and in Juda by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying: Return from your wicked ways, and keep my precepts, and ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers: and as I have sent to you in the hand of my servants the prophets.

14 And they hearkened not, but hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers, who would not obey the Lord their God.

15a And they rejected his ordinances and the covenant that he made with their fathers, and the testimonies which he testified against them.

18 And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from his sight, and there remained only the tribe of Juda.

R. (7b) Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.

3 O God, thou hast cast us off, and hast destroyed us; thou hast been angry, and hast had mercy on us.

R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.

4 Thou hast moved the earth, and hast troubled it: heal thou the breaches thereof, for it has been moved.

5 Thou hast shewn thy people hard things; thou hast made us drink wine of sorrow.

R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.

12 Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go out with our armies?

13 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the salvation of man.

R. Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

12 The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

1 Judge not, that you may not be judged,

2 For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?

4 Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

10 For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.

11 But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach, which never shall be effaced.

12 And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them: for to thee I have laid open my cause.

13 Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.

R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.

8 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

9 I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

10 For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

14 But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

33 Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

34 For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

35 Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.

13 For until the law sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed, when the law was not.

14 But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them also who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come.

15 But not as the offence, so also the gift. For if by the offence of one, many died; much more the grace of God, and the gift, by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

26b, 27a The Spirit of truth will testify to me, says the Lord; and you also will identify.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

26 Therefore fear them not. For nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known.

27 That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.

28 And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows.

32 Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

33 But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

17 And after the death of Joiada, the princes of Juda went in, and worshipped the king: and he was soothed by their services and hearkened to them.

18 And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and Jerusalem for this sin.

19 And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and they would not give ear when they testified against them.

20 The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make him forsake you?

21 And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned him at the king’s commandment in the court of the house of the Lord.

22 And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said: The Lord see, and require it.

23 And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.

24 And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments.

25 And departing they left him in diseases: and his servants rose up him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

R. (29a) Forever I will maintain my love for my servant.

4 I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant:

5 Thy seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up thy throne unto generation and generation.

R. Forever I will maintain my love for my servant.

29 I will keep my mercy for him for ever: and my covenant faithful to him.

30 And I will make his seed to endure for evermore: and his throne as the days of heaven.

R. Forever I will maintain my love for my servant.

31 And if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments:

32 If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments:

R. Forever I will maintain my love for my servant.

33 I will visit their iniquities with a rod: and their sins with stripes.

34 But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I suffer my truth to fail.

R. Forever I will maintain my love for my servant.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

9 Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

24 No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

25 Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?

26 Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?

27 And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit?

28 And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin.

29 But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.

30 And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

31 Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?

32 For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.

33 Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

1 And Athalia the mother of Ochozias seeing that her son was dead, arose, and slew all the royal seed.

2 But Josaba the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ochozias, took Joas the son of Ochozias, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, out of the bedchamber with his nurse: and hid him from the face of Athalia, so that he was not slain.

3 And he was with her six years hid in the house of the Lord. And Athalia reigned over the land.

4 And in the seventh year Joiada seat, and taking the centurions and the soldiers, brought them in to him into the temple of the Lord, and made a covenant with them: and taking an oath of them in the house of the Lord, shewed them the king’s son:

9 And the centurions did according to all things that Joiada the priest had commanded them: and taking every one their men, that went in on the sabbath, with them that went out on the sabbath, came to Joiada the priest.

10 And he gave them the spears, and the arms of king David, which were in the house of the Lord.

11 And they stood having every one their weapons in their hands, from the right side of the temple, unto the left side of the altar, and of the temple, about the king.

12 And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the diadem upon him, and the testimony: and they made him king, and anointed him: and clapping their hands. they said, God save the king.

13 And Athalia heard the noise of the people running: and going in to the people into the temple of the Lord,

14 She saw the king standing upon a tribunal, as the manner was, and the singers, and the trumpets near him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets: and she rent her garments, and cried: A conspiracy, a conspiracy.

15 But Joiada commended the centurions that were over the army, and said to them: Have her forth without the precinct of the temple, and whosoever shall follow her, let him be slain with the sword. For the priest had said: Let her not be slain in the temple of the Lord.

16 And they laid hands on her: and thrust her out by the way by which the horses go in, by the palace, and she was slain there.

17 And Joiada made a covenant between the Lord, and the king, and the people, that they should be the people of the Lord, and between the king and the people.

18 And all the people of the land went into the temple of Baal, and broke down his altars, and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly: they slew also Mathan the priest of Baal before the altar. And the priest set guards in the house of the Lord.

20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: but Athalia was slain with the sword in the king’s house.

R. (13) The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

11 The Lord hath sworn truth to David, and he will not make it void: of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne.

R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

12 If thy children will keep thy covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them: Their children also for evermore shall sit upon thy throne.

R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

13 For the Lord hath chosen Sion: he hath chosen it for his dwelling.

14 This is my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have chosen it.

R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

17 There will I bring forth a horn to David: I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.

18 His enemies I will clothe with confusion: but upon him will my sanctification flourish.

R. The Lord has chosen Zion for his dwelling.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

19 Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal.

20 But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.

21 For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

22 The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.

23 But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!