Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ though I am mocked and cursed and shamed for your sake. ⁸ Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me! ⁹ My zeal for God and his work^[a] burns hot within me. And because I advocate your cause, your enemies insult me even as they insult you. ¹⁰ How they scoff and mock me when I mourn and fast before the Lord!

¹¹ How they talk about me when I wear sackcloth to show my humiliation and sorrow for my sins! ¹² I am the talk of the town and the song of the drunkards. ¹³ But I keep right on praying to you, Lord. For now is the time—you are bending down to hear! You are ready with a plentiful supply of love and kindness. Now answer my prayer and rescue me as you promised.^{[a] 14} Pull me out of this mire. Don’t let me sink in. Rescue me from those who hate me, and from these deep waters I am in.

¹⁵ Don’t let the floods overwhelm me or the ocean swallow me; save me from the pit that threatens me.

¹⁶ O Jehovah, answer my prayers, for your loving-kindness is wonderful; your mercy is so plentiful, so tender and so kind. ¹⁷ Don’t hide from me,^[a] for I am in deep trouble. Quick! Come and save me. ¹⁸ Come, Lord, and rescue me. Ransom me from all my enemies.

¹² But they replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We have no intention whatever of doing what God says. We will continue to live as we want to, free from any restraint, full of stubbornness and wickedness!”

¹³ Then the Lord said: Even among the heathen, no one has ever heard of such a thing! My people have done something too horrible to understand. ¹⁴ The snow never melts high up in the Lebanon mountains. The cold, flowing streams from the crags of Mount Hermon never run dry. ¹⁵ These can be counted on. But not my people! For they have deserted me and turned to foolish idols. They have turned away from the ancient highways of good and walk the muddy paths of sin. ¹⁶ Therefore, their land shall become desolate, so that all who pass by will gasp and shake their heads in amazement at its utter desolation. ¹⁷ I will scatter my people before their enemies as the east wind scatters dust; and in all their trouble I will turn my back on them and refuse to notice their distress.

⁵ And the future world we are talking about will not be controlled by angels. ⁶ No, for in the book of Psalms David says to God, “What is mere man that you are so concerned about him? And who is this Son of Man you honor so highly? ⁷ For though you made him lower than the angels for a little while, now you have crowned him with glory and honor. ⁸ And you have put him in complete charge of everything there is. Nothing is left out.”

We have not yet seen all of this take place, ⁹ but we do see Jesus—who for a while was a little lower than the angels—crowned now by God with glory and honor because he suffered death for us. Yes, because of God’s great kindness, Jesus tasted death for everyone in all the world.