Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

17 Hear what is right, O LORD. Consider my cry. Hear my prayer of unfeigned lips.

² Let my sentence come forth from Your presence. And let Your eyes behold equity.

³ You have tested and visited my heart in the night. You have tried me and found nothing. For I have purposed that my mouth should not offend.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the words of Your lips I kept myself from the paths of the cruel man.

⁵ Keep my steps in Your paths, so that my feet do not slide.

⁶ I have called upon You. Surely You will hear me, O God. Incline Your ear to me and hear my words.

⁷ Show Your marvelous mercies, You Who are the Savior of those who trust in You from such as resist Your right hand.

⁸ Keep me as the apple of Your eye. Hide me under the shadow of Your wings

⁹ from the wicked who oppress me, from my enemies who surround me for my soul.

¹⁰ They are enclosed in their own fat. They have spoken proudly with their mouth.

¹¹ They have surrounded us now in our steps. They have set their eyes to bring us down to the ground.

¹² Like a lion that is greedy for prey (and as it were a lion’s whelp) lurking in secret places.

¹³ Arise, LORD! Disappoint him! Cast him down! Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword;

¹⁴ from men, by Your hand, O LORD; from men of the world who have their portion in this life; whose bellies You fill with Your hidden treasure. Their children have enough and leave the rest of their substance for their children.

¹⁵ But I will behold Your face in righteousness. And when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your image. To him who excels: A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD. Who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies (and from the hand of Saul) and said,

3 And he showed me Joshua the High Priest, standing before the Angel of the LORD. And Satan stood at his right hand to resist him.

² And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD reproves you, O Satan! The LORD, Who has chosen Jerusalem, reproves you! Is not this a brand taken out of the fire?”

³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the Angel.

⁴ And He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to depart from you. And I will clothe you with a change of raiment.”

⁵ And I said, “Let them set a clean turban upon his head.” So, they set a clean turban upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.

⁶ And the Angel of the LORD testified to Joshua, saying,

⁷ “Thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, and keep My watch, you shall also judge My House, and shall also keep My courts. And I will give you a place to walk among those who stand by.

⁸ ‘Hear now, O Joshua the High Priest, you and your friends who sit before you! For they are monstrous people. But behold, I will bring forth the Branch, My Servant.

⁹ ‘For lo, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will carve out its engraving,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘and I will take away the iniquity of this land in one day.

¹⁰ ‘On that day,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘each man shall call his neighbor under his vine, and under his fig tree.’”

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels who had sinned, but cast them down into Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness (to be kept for damnation);

⁵ nor spare the old world (save Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness), but brought in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly;

⁶ and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes (condemning and overthrowing them), and made them an example to those who would live ungodly afterward;

⁷ and delivered Lot only, overwrought with the unclean conduct of the wicked

⁸ (for he - being righteous and dwelling among them - tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds),

⁹ then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trials and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment;

¹⁰ and chiefly those who walk after the flesh (in the lust of uncleanness) and despise government. They are presumptuous, standing in their own conceit, and unafraid to blaspheme God’s glories.

¹¹ Whereas, the angels (who are greater, both in power and might) do not bring slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.

¹² But these, as irrational animals (born in nature for capture and corruption), blaspheme those things which they do not understand, and shall perish through their own corruption;

¹³ and shall receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to live in debauchery every day. They are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you;

¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease to sin, enticing unstable souls. They have hearts trained in covetousness - the children of the curse -

¹⁵ who, forsaking the right way, have gone astray. They follow the way of Balaam of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his iniquity. The dumb beast, speaking with man’s voice, forbade the foolishness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These are wells without water - clouds carried about by the wind - to whom the black darkness is reserved forever.

¹⁸ For in speaking boastful words of frivolity, they allure (with lewdness and lusts of the flesh) those who had barely escaped from those walking in error;

¹⁹ promising them freedom, but themselves the servants of corruption. For by whomever one is overcome, to him also is he in bondage.

²⁰ For if they - after they have escaped from the filthiness of the world through the acknowledging of the Lord and the Savior Jesus Christ - are once again entangled in it and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

²¹ For it had been better for them not to have acknowledged the way of righteousness than to turn from the Holy Commandment given to them after they have acknowledged it.