Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 54^[a]

Confident Prayer in Great Peril

¹ For the leader. On stringed instruments. A maskil of David, ² when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “David is hiding among us.”^(A)

I

II

⁵ Then the king of Assyria^[a] occupied the whole land and attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years.

X. The End of Israel^[b]

Israelites Deported. ⁶ In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria took Samaria, deported the Israelites to Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.^{(A) 7} This came about because the Israelites sinned against the Lord, their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. They venerated other gods, ^8 (B)they followed the rites of the nations whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites and those that the kings of Israel had practiced. ⁹ They adopted unlawful practices toward the Lord, their God. They built high places in all their cities, from guard post to garrisoned town. ¹⁰ They set up pillars and asherahs^[c] for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ They burned incense there, on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had sent into exile at their coming. They did evil things that provoked the Lord, ¹² and served idols, although the Lord had told them: You must not do this.

^13 (C)The Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer: Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your ancestors and which I sent you by my servants the prophets. ¹⁴ But they did not listen. They grew as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who had not believed in the Lord, their God.^{(D) 15} They rejected his statutes, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They followed emptiness and became empty; they followed the surrounding nations whom the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.^{(E) 16} They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord, their God: they made for themselves two molten calves; they made an asherah; they bowed down to all the host of heaven; they served Baal.^{(F) 17 (G)}They immolated their sons and daughters by fire. They practiced augury and divination. They surrendered themselves to doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and provoked him.

^18 (H)The Lord became enraged, and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.

^29 [a]“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,^[b] you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, ^30 (A)and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ ^31 (B)Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; ³² now fill up what your ancestors measured out! ^33 (C)You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna? ^34 [c](D)Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, ³⁵ so that there may come upon you all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the righteous blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ Amen, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

The Lament over Jerusalem.^{[d] 37 (E)}“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!^{(F) 38 (G)}Behold, your house will be abandoned, desolate. ^39 (H)I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”