Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

43 Unto the end, for the sons of Core, to give understanding.

² We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have declared to us, The work, thou hast wrought in their days, and in the days of old.

³ Thy hand destroyed the Gentiles, and thou plantedst them: thou didst afflict the people and cast them out.

⁴ For they got not the possession of the land by their own sword: neither did their own arm save them. But thy right hand and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance: because thou wast pleased with them.

⁵ Thou art thyself my king and my God, who commandest the saving of Jacob.

⁶ Through thee we will push down our enemies with the horn: and through thy name we will despise them that rise up against us.

⁷ For I will not trust in my bow: neither shall my sword save me.

⁸ But thou hast saved us from them that afflict us: and hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁹ In God shall we glory all the day long: and in thy name we will give praise for ever.

¹⁰ But now thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame: and thou, O God, wilt not go out with our armies.

¹¹ Thou hast made us turn our back to our enemies: and they that hated us plundered for themselves.

¹² Thou hast given us up like sheep to be eaten: thou hast scattered us among the nations.

¹³ Thou hast sold thy people for no price: and there was no reckoning in the exchange of them.

¹⁴ Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and derision to them that are round about us.

¹⁵ Thou hast made us a byword among the Gentiles: a shaking of the head among the people.

¹⁶ All the day long my shame is before me: and the confusion of my face hath covered me,

¹⁷ At the voice of him that reproacheth and detracteth me: at the face of the enemy and persecutor.

¹⁸ All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten thee: and we have not done wickedly in they covenant.

¹⁹ And our heart hath not turned back: neither hast thou turned aside our steps from thy way.

²⁰ For thou hast humbled us in the place of affliction: and the shadow of death hath covered us.

²¹ If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread forth our hands to a strange god:

²² Shall not God search out these things: for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Because for thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³ Arise, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, and cast us not off to the end.

²⁴ Why turnest thou face away? and forgettest our want and our trouble?

²⁵ For our soul is humbled down to the dust: our belly cleaveth to the earth.

²⁶ Arise, O Lord, help us and redeem us for thy name's sake.

²⁷ And there came a man of God to Heli, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Did I not plainly appear to thy father's house, when they were in Egypt in the house of Pharao?

²⁸ And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my sitar, and burn incense to me, and to wear the ephod before me: and I gave to thy father's house of all the sacrifices of the children of Israel.

²⁹ Why have you kicked away my victims, and my gifts which I commanded to be offered in the temple: and thou hast rather honoured thy sons than me, to eat the firstfruits of every sacrifice of my people Israel?

³⁰ Wherefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father should minister in my sight, for ever. But now saith the Lord: Far be this from me: but whosoever shall glorify me, him will I glorify: but they that despise me, shall be despised.

³¹ Behold the days come: and I will cut off thy arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house.

³² And thou shalt see thy rival in the temple, in all the prosperity of Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thy house for ever.

³³ However I will not altogether take away a man of thee from my altar: but that thy eyes may faint and thy soul be spent: and a great part of thy house shall die when they come to man's estate.

³⁴ And this shall be a sign to thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees: In one day they shall both of them die.

³⁵ And I will raise me up a faithful priest, who shall do according to my heart, and my soul, and I will build him a faithful house, and he shall walk all days before my anointed.

³⁶ And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall remain in thy house, shall come that he may be prayed for, and shall offer a piece of silver, and a roll of bread, and shall say: Put me, I beseech thee, to somewhat of the priestly office, that I may eat a morsel of bread.

¹⁷ But if thou art called a Jew and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,

¹⁸ And knowest his will, and approvest the more profitable things, being instructed by the law,

¹⁹ Art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness,

²⁰ An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law.

²¹ Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest not thyself: thou that preachest that men should not steal, stealest:

²² Thou that sayest, men should not commit adultery, committest adultery: thou that abhorrest idols, committest sacrilege:

²³ Thou that makest thy boast of the law, by transgression of the law dishonourest God.

²⁴ (For the name of God through you is blasphemed among the Gentiles, as it is written.)

²⁵ Circumcision profiteth indeed, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.

²⁶ If, then, the uncircumcised keep the justices of the law, shall not this uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?

²⁷ And shall not that which by nature is uncircumcision, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law?

²⁸ For it is not he is a Jew, who is so outwardly; nor is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh:

²⁹ But he is a Jew, that is one inwardly; and the circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.