Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

75 To the Overseer. -- `Destroy not.' -- A Psalm of Asaph. -- A Song. We have given thanks to Thee, O God, We have given thanks, and near [is] Thy name, They have recounted Thy wonders.

² When I receive an appointment, I -- I do judge uprightly.

³ Melted is the earth and all its inhabitants, I -- I have pondered its pillars. Selah.

⁴ I have said to the boastful, `Be not boastful,' And to the wicked, `Raise not up a horn.'

⁵ Raise not up on high your horn, (Ye speak with a stiff neck.)

⁶ For not from the east, or from the west, Nor from the wilderness -- [is] elevation.

⁷ But God [is] judge, This He maketh low -- and this He lifteth up.

⁸ For a cup [is] in the hand of Jehovah, And the wine hath foamed, It is full of mixture, and He poureth out of it, Only its dregs wring out, and drink, Do all the wicked of the earth,

⁹ And I -- I declare [it] to the age, I sing praise to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰ And all horns of the wicked I cut off, Exalted are the horns of the righteous!

3 Wo [to] the rebellious and polluted, The oppressing city!

² She hath not hearkened to the voice, She hath not accepted instruction, In Jehovah she hath not trusted, Unto her God she hath not drawn near.

³ Her heads in her midst [are] roaring lions, Her judges [are] evening wolves, They have not gnawn the bone in the morning.

⁴ Her prophets unstable -- men of treachery, Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, They have violated the law.

⁵ Jehovah [is] righteous in her midst, He doth not do perverseness, Morning by morning His judgment he giveth to the light, It hath not been lacking, And the perverse doth not know shame.

⁶ I have cut off nations, Desolated have been their chief ones, I have laid waste their out-places without any passing by, Destroyed have been their cities, Without man, without inhabitant.

⁷ I have said: Only, ye do fear Me, Ye do accept instruction, And her habitation is not cut off, All that I have appointed for her, But they have risen early, They have corrupted all their doings.

⁸ Therefore, wait for Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah, For the day of My rising for prey, For My judgment [is] to gather nations, To assemble kingdoms, To pour out on them Mine indignation, All the heat of Mine anger, For by the fire of My jealousy consumed is all the earth.

⁹ For then do I turn unto peoples a pure lip, To call all of them by the name of Jehovah, To serve Him [with] one shoulder.

¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Cush, my supplicants, The daughter of My scattered ones, Do bring My present.

¹¹ In that day thou art not ashamed because of any of thine actions, Wherewith thou hast transgressed against Me, For then do I turn aside from thy midst The exulting ones of thine excellency, And thou dost add no more to be haughty, In My holy mountain.

¹² And I have left in thy midst a people humble and poor, And they have trusted in the name of Jehovah.

¹³ The remnant of Israel do no perversity, nor speak lies, Nor found in their mouth is a deceitful tongue, For they have delight, and have lain down, And there is none troubling.

²¹ Tell me, ye who are willing to be under law, the law do ye not hear?

²² for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman,

²³ but he who [is] of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who [is] of the free-woman, through the promise;

²⁴ which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar;

²⁵ for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now [is], and is in servitude with her children,

²⁶ and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all,

²⁷ for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many [are] the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.'

²⁸ And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise,

²⁹ but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now;

³⁰ but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;'

³¹ then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.

5 In the freedom, then, with which Christ did make you free -- stand ye, and be not held fast again by a yoke of servitude;