Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Request to Act against Israel’s Neighbors
A song. A psalm of Asaph.[a]
83 O God, do not rest silently.
Do not keep silent or be still, O God.
2 For look, your enemies roar,
and those who hate you have lifted their head.
3 They devise cunning schemes[b] against your people,
and consult together against your protected ones.[c]
4 They say, “Come, let us annihilate them from being a nation,
so that the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”
5 For they have consulted together with a unified purpose.[d]
They have made a covenant against you:
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
8 Assyria also has joined with them.
They provide help[e] to the children of Lot. Selah
9 Do to them as you did with Midian,
as with Sisera, as with Jabin at the wadi of Kishon.
10 They were destroyed at En-dor;
they became dung for the ground.
11 Make their leaders like Oreb and Zeeb,
and all their chiefs like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take as our possession
the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like the tumbleweed,
like the chaff before wind.
14 As fire burns a forest,
and as a flame sets afire mountains,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Yahweh.
17 Let them be ashamed and terrified forever,
and let them be humiliated and perish
18 that they may know that you,
whose name is Yahweh, you alone,
are the Most High over the whole earth.
5 “Then I will approach you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely,[a] and against the oppressors of the hired worker with his wages, the widow and the orphan, and the abusers of[b] the alien,[c] and yet do not fear me,” says Yahweh of hosts.
An Overflowing Blessing
6 “For I, Yahweh, have not changed,[d] and you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.[e] 7 From the days of your ancestors[f] you have turned aside from my rules, and have not kept[g] them! Return to me and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts, “but you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 Will a human dare to rob God? Yet you are robbing me! And you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In the tithes and the contributions! 9 You are being cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you! 10 Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse,[h] so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this,” says Yahweh of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you an overflowing blessing.[i] 11 I will rebuke the devourer[j] for you; it will not destroy the fruit of your soil; your vine in the field will not be unfruitful,” says Yahweh of hosts. 12 “And all the nations will call you blessed, because you will be a land in which one takes joy,”[k] says Yahweh of hosts.
A Paralytic Healed
2 And when he[a] entered again into Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. 2 And many had gathered, so that there was no longer room, not even at the door, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 And they came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 And when[b] they were not able to bring him[c] to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. And after[d] digging through, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying. 5 And when[e] Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they were reasoning like this within themselves, said to them, “Why are you considering these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Get up and pick up your stretcher and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, get up, pick up your stretcher, and go to your home.” 12 And he got up and immediately picked up his[f] stretcher and[g] went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything[h] like this!”
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