Readings for Lent and Easter

¹² Many [foes like] bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have hedged me in.^(A)

¹³ Against me they opened their mouths wide, like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is softened [with anguish] and melted down within me.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a fragment of clay pottery; [with thirst] my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death.^(B)

¹⁶ For [like a pack of] dogs they have encompassed me; a company of evildoers has encircled me, they pierced my hands and my feet.^(C)

¹⁷ I can count all my bones; [the evildoers] gaze at me.^(D)

¹⁸ They part my clothing among them and cast lots for my raiment (a long, shirtlike garment, a seamless undertunic). ^(E))