Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ Hear, Adonai, when I call with my voice,
be gracious to me and answer me.
⁸ To You my heart says: “Seek My face.”
Your face, Adonai, I seek.
⁹ Do not hide Your face from me.
Do not turn Your servant away in anger.
You have been my help.
Do not abandon me or forsake me,
    O God my salvation.
¹⁰ Though my father and my mother
forsake me, Adonai will take me in.
¹¹ Teach me Your way, Adonai,
and lead me on a level path—
because of my enemies.
¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes.
For false witnesses rise up against me,
    breathing out violence.
¹³ Surely I trust that I will see the goodness
of Adonai in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for Adonai.
Be strong, let Your heart take courage,
    and wait for Adonai.

⁸ Judah, so you are—
    your brothers will praise you:
Your hand will be on your enemies’ neck.
Your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ A lion’s cub is Judah—
    from the prey, my son,
    you have gone up.
He crouches, lies down like a lion,
    or like a lioness—
    who would rouse him?^[a]
10 The scepter will not pass from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
    until he to whom it belongs will come.
To him will be the obedience of the peoples.^[c]
11 Binding his foal to the vine,
    his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,^[d]
    he washes his garments in wine,
    and in the blood of grapes his robe.^[e]
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
    and teeth that are whiter than milk.

¹³ Zebulun will dwell by the seashore,
    and be by a harbor for ships—
    his distant border reaches Sidon.

²² A fruitful son is Joseph,
    a fruitful son beside a spring—
    daughters walk along a wall.
²³ The archers were bitter and shot arrows
    and were hostile towards him.
²⁴ Yet his bow was always filled,
    and his arms quick-moving—
    by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.
From there a Shepherd,
    the Stone of Israel,^[a]
25 from the God of your father
    who helps you,
    and Shaddai who blesses you,
    with blessings of heavens above,
    blessings of the deep that lies below,
    blessings of breasts and womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father surpassed
        the blessings of the ancient mountains,
        the desire of the everlasting hills.
    May they be upon Joseph’s head,
        upon the crown of the one set apart from his brothers.

⁶⁸ “Blessed be Adonai,
    God of Israel,
for He has looked after His people
    and brought them redemption.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of His servant David,^[a]
70 just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ages past,
⁷¹ salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us!
⁷² So He shows mercy to our fathers
    and remembers His holy covenant,^[b]
73 the vow which He swore to Abraham
    our father, to grant us—
⁷⁴ rescued fearlessly from the hand of
    our enemies^[c]—to serve Him,
⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called a prophet of Elyon.
For you will go before Adonai to prepare His ways,^[d]
77 to give knowledge of salvation to His people
through removal of their sins.^[e]
78 Through our God’s heart of mercy,
the Sunrise from on high will come upon us,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,^[f]
to guide our feet in the way of shalom.”