Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ O God of hosts, restore us
and cause your face to shine that we may be saved.
⁸ You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You prepared a place before it,
and it took deep root^[a] and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
and the mighty cedars with its boughs.
¹¹ It spread its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the river.
¹² Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass on the road pluck fruit from it?
¹³ Swine from the forests devour^[b] it
and creatures of the field feed on it.
¹⁴ Please return, O God of hosts.
Observe from heaven and see,
and pay attention to this vine,
¹⁵ eventhe stalk that your right hand planted,
and concerning the shoot^[c] you strengthened for yourself.

²³ “How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself,
    I have not gone after the Baals?’
Look at your way in the valley,
    know what you have done.
You are a young she-camel,
    interweaving her ways.
²⁴ A wild ass accustomed to the desert,^[a]
    in the desire of her soul.
She gasps for wind in her rutting time.
    Who can quell^[b] her lust?
All those who seek her will not grow weary,
    in her month they will find her.
²⁵ Restrain your foot from being barefoot,
    and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless.
    No! For I have loved strangers,
    and after them I will go.’^[c]
26 As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act,
    so the house of Israel will be ashamed.
They, their kings, their officials,
    and their priests, and their prophets.
²⁷ Those who say to the tree, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
For they have turned their backs^[d] to me, and not their faces.
    But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us.’
²⁸ But where are your gods that you made for yourself?
    Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble.
For according to the number of your towns
    are your gods, O Judah.
²⁹ Why do you complain to me?
    All of you have rebelled against me,”^[e] declares^[f] Yahweh.
³⁰ “For in vain^[g] I have struck your children.
    They accepted no discipline.
Your sword devoured your prophets,
    like a ravening^[h] lion.
³¹ O generation, you see the word of Yahweh.
    Have I been a desert^[i] to Israel? Or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We roam about freely,
    we will not come again to you’?
³² Can a young woman forget her ornaments?^[j] Or a bride her sashes?
    Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
³³ How well you do on your way to seek love!
    Therefore^[k] even to the wicked woman you can teach your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
    the blood of the life of the innocent, the poor.
You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house.
    But in spite of all these things,
³⁵ yet you say, ‘But I am innocent,
    surely his anger has turned away from me.’
Look, I am entering into judgment with you
    because of your saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ How you go about so much changing your way!
    Also by Egypt you will be put to shame,
    just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ Also from there you will come out
    with your hands on your head,
for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust,^[l]
    and you will not prosper through them.