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.

13 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

² Son of man, prophesy thou against the prophets of Israel that prophesy: and thou shalt say to them that prophesy out of their own heart: Hear ye the word of the Lord:

³ Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and see nothing.

⁴ Thy prophets, O Israel, were like foxes in the deserts.

⁵ You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle in the day of the Lord.

⁶ They see vain things, and they foretell lies, saying: The Lord saith: whereas the Lord hath not sent them: and they have persisted to confirm what they have said.

⁷ Have you not seen a vain vision and spoken a lying divination: and you say: The Lord saith: whereas I have not spoken.

⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have spoken vain things, and have seen lies: therefore behold I come against you, saith the Lord God.

⁹ And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vain things, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

¹⁰ Because they have deceived my people, saying: Peace, and there is no peace: and the people built up a wall, and they daubed it with dirt without straw.

¹¹ Say to them that daub without tempering, that it shall fall: for there shall be an overflowing shower, and I will cause great hailstones to fall violently from above, and a stormy wind to throw it down.

¹² Behold, when the wall is fallen: shall it not be said to you: Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed it?

¹³ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Lo, I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in my indignation, and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger: and great hailstones in my wrath to consume.

¹⁴ And I will break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar: and I will make it even with the ground, and the foundation thereof shall be laid bare: and it shall fall, and shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁵ And I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that daub it without tempering the mortar, and I will say to you: The wall is no more, and they that daub it are no more.

¹⁶ Even the prophets of Israel that prophesy to Jerusalem, and that see visions of peace for her: and there is no peace, saith the Lord God.

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

² And many shall follow their riotousnesses, through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their perdition slumbereth not.