Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 Keep silent before Adonai Elohim,
for the Day of Adonai is near.
Adonai has prepared a sacrifice;
he has set apart those he invited.
12 When that time comes, I will search
Yerushalayim with lamps
and punish those who are [smug and thick,
like wine] left too long on its dregs,
who say to themselves, ‘Adonai will do nothing —
neither good nor bad.’
13 For this, their wealth will be plundered;
and their houses will be destroyed.
Yes, they will build houses but not live in them;
they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.”
14 The great Day of Adonai is near,
near and coming very quickly;
Hear the sound of the Day of Adonai!
When it’s here, even a warrior will cry bitterly.
15 That Day is a Day of fury,
a Day of trouble and distress,
a Day of waste and desolation,
a Day of darkness and gloom,
a Day of clouds and thick fog,
16 a Day of the shofar and battle-cry
against the fortified cities
and against the high towers [on the city walls].
17 “I will bring such distress on people
that they will grope their way like the blind,
because they have sinned against Adonai.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their bowels like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them.
On the day of Adonai’s fury,
the whole land will be destroyed
in the fire of his jealousy.
For he will make an end, a horrible end,
of all those living in the land.”
Book IV: Psalms 90–106
90 (0) A prayer of Moshe the man of God:
(1) Adonai, you have been our dwelling place
in every generation.
2 Before the mountains were born,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
from eternity past to eternity future
you are God.
3 You bring frail mortals to the point of being crushed,
then say, “People, repent!”
4 For from your viewpoint a thousand years
are merely like yesterday or a night watch.
5 When you sweep them away, they become like sleep;
by morning they are like growing grass,
6 growing and flowering in the morning,
but by evening cut down and dried up.
7 For we are destroyed by your anger,
overwhelmed by your wrath.
8 You have placed our faults before you,
our secret sins in the full light of your presence.
9 All our days ebb away under your wrath;
our years die away like a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years,
or if we are strong, eighty;
yet at best it is toil and sorrow,
over in a moment, and then we are gone.
11 Who grasps the power of your anger and wrath
to the degree that the fear due you should inspire?
12 So teach us to count our days,
so that we will become wise.
5 But you have no need to have anything written to you, brothers, about the times and dates when this will happen; 2 because you yourselves well know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When people are saying, “Everything is so peaceful and secure,” then destruction will suddenly come upon them, the way labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there is no way they will escape.
4 But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the Day should take you by surprise like a thief; 5 for you are all people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We don’t belong to the night or to darkness, 6 so let’s not be asleep, like the rest are; on the contrary, let us stay alert and sober. 7 People who sleep, sleep at night; and people who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us stay sober, putting on trust and love as a breastplate and the hope of being delivered as a helmet.[a] 9 For God has not intended that we should experience his fury, but that we should gain deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, 10 who died on our behalf so that whether we are alive or dead, we may live along with him. 11 Therefore, encourage each other, and build each other up — just as you are doing.
14 “For it will be like a man about to leave home for awhile, who entrusted his possessions to his servants. 15 To one he gave five talents [equivalent to a hundred years’ wages]; to another, two talents; and to another, one talent — to each according to his ability. Then he left. 16 The one who had received five talents immediately went out, invested it and earned another five. 17 Similarly, the one given two earned another two. 18 But the one given one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time, the master of those servants returned to settle accounts with them. 20 The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the other five and said, ‘Sir, you gave me five talents; here, I have made five more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Excellent! You are a good and trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with a small amount, so I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and join in your master’s happiness!’ 22 Also the one who had received two came forward and said, ‘Sir, you gave me two talents; here, I have made two more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Excellent! you are a good and trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with a small amount, so I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and join in your master’s happiness!’
24 “Now the one who had received one talent came forward and said, ‘I knew you were a hard man. You harvest where you didn’t plant and gather where you didn’t sow seed. 25 I was afraid, so I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here! Take what belongs to you!’ 26 ‘You wicked, lazy servant!’ said his master, ‘So you knew, did you, that I harvest where I haven’t planted? and that I gather where I didn’t sow seed? 27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, so that when I returned, I would at least have gotten back interest with my capital! 28 Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. 29 For everyone who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless servant, throw him out in the dark, where people will wail and grind their teeth!’
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.