Readings for Lent and Easter

²¹ “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has struck me!
²² Why do you persecute me as God does,
    and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ “Oh, that my words were written!
    Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ That they were engraved with an iron pen
    and lead in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and He will stand at last on the earth;
²⁶ and after my skin is destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God,
²⁷ whom I will see for myself,
    and my eyes will behold, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me.

²⁸ “If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
    since the root of the matter is found in me,
²⁹ be afraid of the sword for yourselves;
    for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
    that you may know there is a judgment.”