Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴ For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil will not sojourn with you.^(D)
5 The boastful will not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers.^(E)
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
    the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.^(F)

⁷ But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
    will enter your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
    in awe of you.^(G)
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.^(H)

⁹ For there is no truth in their mouths;
    their hearts are destruction;
their throats are open graves;
    they flatter with their tongues.^(I)
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
because of their many transgressions, cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.^(J)

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
    so that those who love your name may exult in you.^(K)
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
    you cover them with favor as with a shield.^(L)

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes but do not see,
    who have ears but do not hear.^(C)
22 Do you not fear me? says the Lord;
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.^(D)
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.^(E)
24 They do not say in their hearts,
    “Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.”^(F)
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have deprived you of good.^(G)
26 For the wicked are found among my people.
    They lie in wait like hunters;
destroyers,^[a] they catch humans.^(H)
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich;^(I)
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
    they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.^(J)
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
            says the Lord,
    and shall I not bring retribution
    on a nation such as this?^(K)

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:^(L)
31 the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule as the prophets direct;^[b]
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?^(M)