Psalm 55

English Standard Version

Cast Your Burden on the Lord

To the choirmaster: with ^(A)stringed instruments. A Maskil^[a] of David.

55 ^(B)Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
²Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless ^(C)in my complaint and I ^(D)moan,
³because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they ^(E)drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

⁴My heart is in anguish within me;
    ^(F)the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and ^(G)horror ^(H)overwhelms me.
⁶And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷^(I)yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸I would hurry to find a shelter
    from ^(J)the raging wind and tempest.”

⁹Destroy, O Lord, ^(K)divide their tongues;
    for I see ^(L)violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and ^(M)iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹    ruin is in its midst;
^(N)oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.

¹²For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who ^(O)deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
¹³^(P)But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in ^(Q)the throng.
¹⁵Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol ^(R)alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

¹⁶But I call to God,
    and the Lord will save me.
¹⁷^(S)Evening and ^(T)morning and at ^(U)noon
    I ^(V)utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
¹⁸He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for ^(W)many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is ^(X)enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not ^(Y)change
    and do not fear God.

²⁰My companion^[b] ^(Z)stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
²¹His ^(AA)speech was ^(AB)smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were ^(AC)drawn swords.

²²^(AD)Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
^(AE)he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

²³But you, O God, ^(AF)will cast them down
into ^(AG)the pit of destruction;
men of ^(AH)blood and treachery
shall not ^(AI)live out half their days.
But I will ^(AJ)trust in you.

Footnotes

Psalm 55:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 55:20 Hebrew He

Lamentations 2:1-9

English Standard Version

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

2 How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion ^(A)under a cloud!
^(B)He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered ^(C)his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

²The Lord ^(D)has swallowed up ^(E)without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath ^(F)he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought ^(G)down to the ground ^(H)in dishonor
    the kingdom ^(I)and its rulers.

³He has cut down in ^(J)fierce anger
    all ^(K)the might of Israel;
^(L)he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
^(M)he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

⁴^(N)He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set ^(O)like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;
in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵^(P)The Lord has become like an enemy;
    ^(Q)he has swallowed up Israel;
^(R)he has swallowed up all its palaces;
    he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    ^(S)mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins ^(T)his meeting place;
^(U)the Lord has made Zion forget
festival and ^(V)Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

⁷^(W)The Lord has scorned his altar,
    ^(X)disowned his sanctuary;
^(Y)he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
^(Z)they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of festival.

⁸^(AA)The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    ^(AB)the wall of the daughter of Zion;
^(AC)he stretched out the measuring line;
    he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
^(AD)he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    ^(AE)they languished together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    ^(AF)he has ruined ^(AG)and broken her bars;
^(AH)her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and ^(AI)her prophets find
    no vision from the Lord.

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2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11

English Standard Version

²³But ^(A)I call God to witness against me—it was ^(B)to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. ²⁴Not that we ^(C)lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm ^(D)in your faith.

2 For I made up my mind ^(E)not to make another painful visit to you. ²For ^(F)if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? ³And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, ^(G)for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. ⁴For ^(H)I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgive the Sinner

⁵Now ^(I)if anyone has caused pain, ^(J)he has caused it not to me, but ^(K)in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. ⁶For such a one, ^(L)this punishment by the majority is enough, ⁷so ^(M)you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For this is why I wrote, that I might ^(N)test you and know ^(O)whether you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for ^(P)we are not ignorant of his designs.

Mark 12:1-11

English Standard Version

The Parable of the Tenants

12 ^(A)And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ^(B)a vineyard ^(C)and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and ^(D)leased it to tenants and ^(E)went into another country. ²When the season came, he sent a servant^[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³^(F)And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴^(G)Again ^(H)he sent to them another servant, and ^(I)they struck him on the head and ^(J)treated him shamefully. ⁵^(K)And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶He had still one other, ^(L)a beloved son. ^(M)Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenants said to one another, ^(N)‘This is the heir. Come, ^(O)let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸And they took him and killed him and ^(P)threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? ^(Q)He will ^(R)come and destroy the tenants and ^(S)give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰^(T)Have you not read ^(U)this Scripture: