Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

54 To the Overseer with stringed instruments. -- An instruction, by David, in the coming in of the Ziphim, and they say to Saul, `Is not David hiding himself with us?' O God, by Thy name save me, and by Thy might judge me.

² O God, hear my prayer, Give ear to the sayings of my mouth,

³ For strangers have risen up against me And terrible ones have sought my soul, They have not set God before them. Selah.

⁴ Lo, God [is] a helper to me, The Lord [is] with those supporting my soul,

⁵ Turn back doth the evil thing to mine enemies, In Thy truth cut them off.

⁶ With a free will-offering I sacrifice to Thee, I thank Thy name, O Jehovah, for [it is] good,

⁷ For, from all adversity He delivered me, And on mine enemies hath mine eye looked!

⁵ And the king of Asshur goeth up into all the land, and he goeth up to Samaria, and layeth siege against it three years;

⁶ in the ninth year of Hoshea hath the king of Asshur captured Samaria, and removeth Israel to Asshur, and causeth them to dwell in Halah, and in Habor, [by] the river Gozan, and [in] the cities of the Medes.

⁷ And it cometh to pass, because the sons of Israel have sinned against Jehovah their God -- who bringeth them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt -- and fear other gods,

⁸ and walk in the statutes of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel, and of the kings of Israel that they made;

⁹ and the sons of Israel do covertly things that [are] not right against Jehovah their God, and build for them high places in all their cities, from a tower of the watchers unto the fenced city,

¹⁰ and set up for them standing-pillars and shrines on every high height, and under every green tree,

¹¹ and make perfume there in all high places, like the nations that Jehovah removed from their presence, and do evil things to provoke Jehovah,

¹² and serve the idols, of which Jehovah said to them, `Ye do not do this thing;'

¹³ And Jehovah testifieth against Israel, and against Judah, by the hand of every prophet, and every seer, saying, `Turn back from your evil ways, and keep My commands, My statutes, according to all the law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent unto you by the hand of My servants the prophets;'

¹⁴ and they have not hearkened, and harden their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who did not remain stedfast in Jehovah their God,

¹⁵ and reject His statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies that He testified against them, and go after the vain thing, and become vain, and after the nations that are round about them, of whom Jehovah commanded them not to do like them;

¹⁶ And they forsake all the commands of Jehovah their God, and make to them a molten image -- two calves, and make a shrine, and bow themselves to all the host of the heavens, and serve Baal,

¹⁷ and cause their sons and their daughters to pass over through fire, and divine divinations, and use enchantments, and sell themselves to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him;

¹⁸ That Jehovah sheweth himself very angry against Israel, and turneth them aside from His presence; none hath been left, only the tribe of Judah by itself.

²⁹ `Wo to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the tombs of the righteous,

³⁰ and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

³¹ So that ye testify to yourselves, that ye are sons of them who did murder the prophets;

³² and ye -- ye fill up the measure of your fathers.

³³ `Serpents! brood of vipers! how may ye escape from the judgment of the gehenna?

³⁴ `Because of this, lo, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and of them ye will kill and crucify, and of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and will pursue from city to city;

³⁵ that on you may come all the righteous blood being poured out on the earth from the blood of Abel the righteous, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar:

³⁶ verily I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

³⁷ `Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that art killing the prophets, and stoning those sent unto thee, how often did I will to gather thy children together, as a hen doth gather her own chickens under the wings, and ye did not will.

³⁸ Lo, left desolate to you is your house;

³⁹ for I say to you, ye may not see me henceforth, till ye may say, Blessed [is] he who is coming in the name of the Lord.'