Readings for Lent and Easter

⁴ More in number than the hairs of my head
    are those who hate me without cause;
many are those who would destroy me,
    my enemies who accuse me falsely.
What I did not steal
    must I now restore?
⁵ O God, you know my folly;
    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶ Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me,
    O Lord God of hosts;
do not let those who seek you be dishonored because of me,
    O God of Israel.
⁷ It is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that shame has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my kindred,
    an alien to my mother’s children.

⁹ It is zeal for your house that has consumed me;
    the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
¹⁰ When I humbled my soul with fasting,^[a]
    they insulted me for doing so.
¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
¹² I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make songs about me.