Readings for Lent and Easter

²¹ “Pity me, pity me, you my friends,
for God’s hand has touched me.
²² Why do you^[a] pursue me like God?
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
²³ “O that^[b] my words could be written down!
O that they could be inscribed in a scroll!^[c]
24 That with a pen of iron and with lead
they might be engraved on a rock forever!
²⁵ But^[d] I myself^[e] know that my redeemer is alive,
and at the last he will stand up upon the earth.^[f]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
but^[g] from^[h] my flesh I will see God,
²⁷ whom I will see for myself,^[i]
and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger.^[j]
My heart faints within me.^[k]
28 “If you^[l] say, ‘How will we persecute him?’
And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me,^[m]
29 be afraid for yourselves because of the sword,^[n]
for wrath brings punishment by^[o] the sword,
so that you may know that there is judgment.”