Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Judgment on the Wicked
For the music director, according to Do not Destroy.
Of David. A miktam.[a]
58 Do you really speak what is right when silent?[b]
Do you judge fairly the children of humankind?[c]
2 No, in your heart you plan injustices;
in the land[d] you weigh out the violence of your hands.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray from the belly, speaking lies.
4 Their venom is like snake venom;
They are like a deaf viper that closes its ear
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or the skilled caster of spells.
6 O God, break their teeth in their mouth.
Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.
7 Let them run away like water that runs off.
When he bends the bow, let his arrows be as though they were cut off.[e]
8 Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes;
like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the heat of a thornbush,
whether green or dry,[f] he will sweep it away.[g]
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 And people[h] will say, “Surely there is a reward[i] for the righteous.
Surely there is a God who judges in the land.”[j]
3 A saying:[a] ‘Look, if a man divorces his wife,
and she goes from him and she becomes another man’s wife,[b]
will he return to her again?’
Will not that land be greatly defiled?
And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,
would you now return to me?” declares[c] Yahweh.
2 “Lift up your eyes at the barren heights,
and see where you have not been ravished.
Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert,[d]
and you have defiled the land
with your fornication
and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore rain showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come.
Yet you have[e] the forehead of a woman prostitute,
you refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now called to me,
‘My father, you are the close friend of my youth?
5 Will he be angry forever?[f]
Will he maintain it always’?[g]
Look, you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could.”[h]
Yahweh Gives Israel a Letter of Divorce
6 Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, “Have you seen what apostate[i] Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted herself there. 7 And I thought, ‘After her doing all these things to me she will return,’ but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.[j] 8 And I saw that for this very reason, that[k] on account of apostate[l] Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. 9 And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. 10 Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only[m] in pretense,”[n] declares[o] Yahweh.
A Call for Repentance
11 Then Yahweh said to me, “Apostate[p] Israel has proved herself more upright[q] than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
‘Return, apostate[r] Israel,’ declares[s] Yahweh.
‘I will not cause my anger[t] to fall on you.
For I am loyal,’ declares[u] Yahweh.
‘I will not be angry forever.[v]
13 Only acknowledge your guilt,
that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled,
and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares[w] Yahweh.”
14 “Return, apostate[x] children,” declares[y] Yahweh. “For I am your master,[z] and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan,[aa] and I will bring you to Zion.
Greeting
1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of the chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth that is according to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life which God, who does not lie, promised before eternal ages, 3 but at the proper time has disclosed his message in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior, 4 to Titus, my true child according to a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Instructions to Titus in Crete
5 On account of this, I left you behind in Crete, in order that what remains may be set in order and you may appoint elders in every town, as I ordered you. 6 If anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful[a] children, not accused of dissipation[b] or rebellious. 7 For it is necessary for the overseer to be blameless as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, prudent, just, devout, self-controlled, 9 holding fast to the faithful message according to the teaching, in order that he may be able both to exhort with sound instruction and to reprove those who speak against it.
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