Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 140
For the choir leader; a psalm by David.
1 Rescue me from evil people, O Yahweh.
Keep me safe from violent people.
2 They plan evil things in their hearts.
They start fights every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a snake’s fang.
Their lips hide the venom of poisonous snakes. Selah
4 Protect me from the hands of wicked people, O Yahweh.
Keep me safe from violent people.
They try to trip me.
5 Arrogant people have laid a trap for me.
They have spread out a net with ropes.
They have set traps for me along the road. Selah
6 I said to Yahweh, “You are my El.”
O Yahweh, open your ears to hear my plea for pity.
7 O Yahweh Adonay, the strong one who saves me,
you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8 O Yahweh, do not give wicked people what they want.
Do not let their evil plans succeed,
or they will become arrogant. Selah
9 Let the heads of those who surround me
be covered with their own threats.
10 Let burning coals fall on them.
Let them be thrown into a pit, never to rise again.
11 Do not let slanderers prosper on earth.
Let evil hunt down violent people with one blow after another.
12 I know that Yahweh will defend the rights of those who are oppressed
and the cause of those who are needy.
13 Indeed, righteous people will give thanks to your name.
Decent people will live in your presence.
16 This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth says:
Don’t listen to what the prophets are saying to you.
They fill you with false hope.
They speak about visions that they dreamed up.
These visions are not from Yahweh.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me,
“Yahweh says, ‘Everything will go well for you.’”
They tell all who live by their own stubborn ways,
“Nothing bad will happen to you.”
18 Who is in Yahweh’s inner circle
and sees and hears his word?
Who pays attention and listens to his word?
19 The storm of Yahweh will come with his anger.
Like a windstorm, it will swirl down on the heads of the wicked.
20 The anger of Yahweh will not turn back
until he has done everything he intends to do.
In the last days you will understand this clearly.
21 I didn’t send these prophets,
yet they ran with their message.
I didn’t speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 If they had been in my inner circle,
they would have announced my words to my people.
They would have turned back from their evil ways
and the evil they have done.
16 “I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as snakes but as innocent as doves. 17 Watch out for people who will hand you over to the Jewish courts and whip you in their synagogues. 18 Because of me you will even be brought in front of governors and kings to testify to them and to everyone in the world. 19 When they hand you over to the authorities, don’t worry about what to say or how to say it. When the time comes, you will be given what to say. 20 Indeed, you’re not the ones who will be speaking. The Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you.
21 “Brother will hand over brother to death; a father will hand over his child. Children will rebel against their parents and kill them. 22 Everyone will hate you because you are committed to me. But the person who patiently endures to the end will be saved. 23 So when they persecute you in one city, flee to another. I can guarantee this truth: Before you have gone through every city in Israel, the Son of Man will come.
24 “A student is not better than his teacher. Nor is a slave better than his owner. 25 It is enough for a student to become like his teacher and a slave like his owner. If they have called the owner of the house Beelzebul,[a] they will certainly call the family members the same name.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.