Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

83 Do not keep silent, O God. Do not be still, and do not cease, O God.

² For lo, Your enemies murmur and those who hate You have lifted up the head.

³ They have taken crafty counsel against Your people and have consulted against Your treasured ones.

⁴ They have said, “Come and let us cut them off from being a nation. And let the name of Israel be in remembrance no more.”

⁵ For they have consulted together in heart and have made a league against You:

⁶ the tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites,

⁷ Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre.

⁸ Assyria has also joined with them. They have been an arm to the children of Lot. Selah.

⁹ Do to them as to the Midianites, as to Sisera and as to Jabin at the river of Kishon.

¹⁰ They perished at En Dor and were dung for the Earth.

¹¹ Make them—even their princes like Oreb and like Zeeb (indeed, all their princes like Zebah and like Zalmunna

¹² who have said, “Let us take for our possession the habitations of God)—

¹³ O, my God, make them like a wheel and as the stubble before the wind.

¹⁴ As the fire burns the forest, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire,

¹⁵ so persecute them with Your tempest and make them afraid with Your storm.

¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek Your Name, O LORD.

¹⁷ Let them be confounded and troubled forever. Indeed, let them be put to shame and perish,

¹⁸ so that they may know that You, Who are called JEHOVAH, are alone, the Most High over all the Earth. To him who excels upon Gittith: A Psalm committed to the sons of Korah

⁵ “And I will come near to you, to judgment. And I will be a swift Witness against the soothsayers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those who wrongfully keep back the hireling’s wages, and trouble the widow, and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger, and do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁶ “For I am the LORD. I do not change. And you sons of Jacob are not at an end.

⁷ “From the days of your fathers, you have gone away from My Ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you said, ‘How shall we return?’

⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’—in tithes and offerings.

⁹ “You are cursed with a curse. For this whole nation has robbed Me.

¹⁰ “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My House. And test Me now with this,” says the LORD of Hosts, “if I will not open the windows of Heaven for you and pour you out a blessing without measure.

¹¹ “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. And he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground. Nor shall your vine be barren in the field,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹² “And all nations shall call you blessed. For you shall be a pleasant land,” says the LORD of Hosts.

2 After a few days, He entered into Capernaum again. And word spread that He was in the house.

² And many gathered together, so much so that the places outside the door could not receive any more. And He preached the Word to them.

³ And four men came to Him carrying a paralytic.

⁴ And since they could not come near to Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof of the house where He was. And when they had broken it open, they let down the bed in which the sick man lay.

⁵ Now when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the sick man, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

⁶ And some of the scribes were sitting there, reasoning in their hearts,

⁷ “Why does this man speak such blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God only?”

⁸ And immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that thus they reasoned with themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

⁹ “Is it easier to say to the paralyzed, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and walk?’

¹⁰ “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins…” He said to the sick man,

¹¹ “Arise. Take up your bed and go to your own house.”

¹² And he rose immediately, and took up his bed, and went forth before them all. And they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw such a thing!”