Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

82 -- A Psalm of Asaph. God hath stood in the company of God, In the midst God doth judge.

² Till when do ye judge perversely? And the face of the wicked lift up? Selah.

³ Judge ye the weak and fatherless, The afflicted and the poor declare righteous.

⁴ Let the weak and needy escape, From the hand of the wicked deliver them.

⁵ They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.

⁶ I -- I have said, `Gods ye [are], And sons of the Most High -- all of you,

⁷ But as man ye die, and as one of the heads ye fall,

⁸ Rise, O God, judge the earth, For Thou hast inheritance among all the nations!

6 And the ark of Jehovah is in the field of the Philistines seven months,

² and the Philistines call for priests and for diviners, saying, `What do we do to the ark of Jehovah? let us know wherewith we send it to its place?'

³ And they say, `If ye are sending away the ark of the God of Israel, ye do not send it away empty; for ye do certainly send back to Him a guilt-offering; then ye are healed, and it hath been known to you why His hand doth not turn aside from you.'

⁴ And they say, `What [is] the guilt-offering which we send back to Him?' and they say, `The number of the princes of the Philistines -- five golden emerods, and five golden mice -- for one plague [is] to you all, and to your princes,

⁵ and ye have made images of your emerods, and images of your mice that are corrupting the land, and have given honour to the God of Israel; it may be He doth lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land;

⁶ and why do ye harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their heart? do they not -- when He hath rolled Himself upon them -- send them away, and they go?

⁷ `And now, take and make one new cart, and two suckling kine, on which a yoke hath not gone up, and ye have bound the kine in the cart, and caused their young ones to turn back from after them to the house,

⁸ and ye have taken the ark of Jehovah, and put it on the cart, and the vessels of gold which ye have returned to Him -- a guilt-offering -- ye put in a coffer on its side, and have sent it away, and it hath gone;

⁹ and ye have seen, if the way of its own border it goeth up to Beth-Shemesh -- He hath done to us this great evil; and if not, then we have known that His hand hath not come against us; an accident it hath been to us.'

¹⁰ And the men do so, and take two suckling kine, and bind them in the cart, and their young ones they have shut up in the house;

¹¹ and they place the ark of Jehovah upon the cart, and the coffer, and the golden mice, and the images of their emerods.

¹² And the kine go straight in the way, on the way to Beth-Shemesh, in one highway they have gone, going and lowing, and have not turned aside right or left; and the princes of the Philistines are going after them unto the border of Beth-Shemesh.

¹³ And the Beth-Shemeshites are reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley, and they lift up their eyes, and see the ark, and rejoice to see [it].

¹⁴ And the cart hath come in unto the field of Joshua the Beth-Shemeshite, and standeth there, and there [is] a great stone, and they cleave the wood of the cart, and the kine they have caused to ascend -- a burnt-offering to Jehovah.

¹⁵ And the Levites have taken down the ark of Jehovah, and the coffer which [is] with it, in which [are] the vessels of gold, and place [them] on the great stone; and the men of Beth-Shemesh have caused to ascend burnt-offerings and sacrifice sacrifices in that day to Jehovah;

¹⁶ and the five princes of the Philistines have seen [it], and turn back [to] Ekron, on that day.

¹⁵ `Whenever, therefore, ye may see the abomination of the desolation, that was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever is reading let him observe)

¹⁶ then those in Judea -- let them flee to the mounts;

¹⁷ he on the house-top -- let him not come down to take up any thing out of his house;

¹⁸ and he in the field -- let him not turn back to take his garments.

¹⁹ `And wo to those with child, and to those giving suck in those days;

²⁰ and pray ye that your flight may not be in winter, nor on a sabbath;

²¹ for there shall be then great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world till now, no, nor may be.

²² And if those days were not shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but because of the chosen, shall those days be shortened.

²³ `Then if any one may say to you, Lo, here [is] the Christ! or here! ye may not believe;

²⁴ for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and they shall give great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, also the chosen.

²⁵ Lo, I did tell you beforehand.

²⁶ `If therefore they may say to you, Lo, in the wilderness he is, ye may not go forth; lo, in the inner chambers, ye may not believe;

²⁷ for as the lightning doth come forth from the east, and doth appear unto the west, so shall be also the presence of the Son of Man;