Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
50 A Psalm of Asaph. The God of gods -- Jehovah -- hath spoken, And He calleth to the earth From the rising of the sun unto its going in.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shone.
3 Our God cometh, and is not silent, Fire before Him doth devour, And round about him it hath been very tempestuous.
4 He doth call unto the heavens from above, And unto the earth, to judge His people.
5 Gather ye to Me My saints, Making covenant with Me over a sacrifice.
6 And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself [is] judge. Selah.
7 Hear, O My people, and I speak, O Israel, and I testify against thee, God, thy God [am] I.
8 Not for thy sacrifices do I reprove thee, Yea, thy burnt-offerings [Are] before Me continually.
9 I take not from thy house a bullock, From thy folds he goats.
10 For Mine [is] every beast of the forest, The cattle on the hills of oxen.
11 I have known every fowl of the mountains, And the wild beast of the field [is] with Me.
12 If I am hungry I tell not to thee, For Mine [is] the world and its fulness.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, And drink the blood of he-goats?
14 Sacrifice to God confession, And complete to the Most High thy vows.
15 And call Me in a day of adversity, I deliver thee, and thou honourest Me.
16 And to the wicked hath God said: What to thee -- to recount My statutes? That thou liftest up My covenant on thy mouth?
17 Yea, thou hast hated instruction, And dost cast My words behind thee.
18 If thou hast seen a thief, Then thou art pleased with him, And with adulterers [is] thy portion.
19 Thy mouth thou hast sent forth with evil, And thy tongue joineth deceit together,
20 Thou sittest, against thy brother thou speakest, Against a son of thy mother givest slander.
21 These thou didst, and I kept silent, Thou hast thought that I am like thee, I reprove thee, and set in array before thine eyes.
22 Understand this, I pray you, Ye who are forgetting God, Lest I tear, and there is no deliverer.
23 He who is sacrificing praise honoureth Me, As to him who maketh a way, I cause him to look on the salvation of God!
7 And it cometh to pass, in the fourth year of Darius the king hath a word of Jehovah been unto Zechariah, in the fourth of the ninth month, in Chisleu.
2 And Beth-El sendeth Sherezer and Regem-Melech, and its men, to appease the face of Jehovah,
3 speaking unto the priests who [are] at the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, `Do I weep in the fifth month -- being separated -- as I have done these so many years?'
4 And there is a word of Jehovah of Hosts unto me, saying:
5 `Speak unto all the people of the land, and unto the priests, saying:
6 When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh [months] -- even these seventy years -- did ye keep the fast [to] Me -- Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?
7 `Are not [these] the words that Jehovah proclaimed by the hand of the former prophets, in Jerusalem's being inhabited, and [in] safety, and its cities round about it, and the south and the plain -- abiding?'
8 And there is a word of Jehovah unto Zechariah, saying:
9 `Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts, saying: True judgment judge ye, And kindness and mercy do one with another.
10 And widow, and fatherless, Sojourner, and poor, ye do not oppress, And the calamity of one another ye do not devise in your heart.
11 And they refuse to attend, And they give a refractory shoulder, And their ears have made heavy against hearing.
12 And their heart they have made adamant, Against hearing the law, and the words, That Jehovah of Hosts sent by His Spirit, By the hand of the former prophets, And their is great wrath from Jehovah of Hosts.
13 And it cometh to pass, as He called, And they have not hearkened, So do they call, and I do not hearken, Said Jehovah of Hosts.
14 And I toss them on all the nations, That they have not known, The land hath been desolate behind them, Of any passing by and turning back, And they set a desirable land for a desolation!
5 and to remind you I intend, you knowing once this, that the Lord, a people out of the land of Egypt having saved, again those who did not believe did destroy;
6 messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept,
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in like manner to these, having given themselves to whoredom, and gone after other flesh, have been set before -- an example, of fire age-during, justice suffering.
8 In like manner, nevertheless, those dreaming also the flesh indeed do defile, and lordship they put away, and dignities they speak evil of,
9 yet Michael, the chief messenger, when, with the devil contending, he was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring up an evil-speaking judgment, but said, `The Lord rebuke thee!'
10 and these, as many things indeed as they have not known, they speak evil of; and as many things as naturally (as the irrational beasts) they understand, in these they are corrupted;
11 wo to them! because in the way of Cain they did go on, and to the deceit of Balaam for reward they did rush, and in the gainsaying of Korah they did perish.
12 These are in your love-feasts craggy rocks; feasting together with you, without fear shepherding themselves; clouds without water, by winds carried about; trees autumnal, without fruit, twice dead, rooted up;
13 wild waves of a sea, foaming out their own shames; stars going astray, to whom the gloom of the darkness to the age hath been kept.
14 And prophesy also to these did the seventh from Adam -- Enoch -- saying, `Lo, the Lord did come in His saintly myriads,
15 to do judgment against all, and to convict all their impious ones, concerning all their works of impiety that they did impiously, and concerning all the stiff things that speak against Him did impious sinners.'
16 These are murmurers, repiners; according to their desires walking, and their mouth doth speak great swellings, giving admiration to persons for the sake of profit;
17 and ye, beloved, remember ye the sayings spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:
18 that they said to you, that in the last time there shall be scoffers, after their own desires of impieties going on,
19 these are those setting themselves apart, natural men, the Spirit not having.
20 And ye, beloved, on your most holy faith building yourselves up, in the Holy Spirit praying,
21 yourselves in the love of God keep ye, waiting for the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ -- to life age-during;