Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

82 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.

² How long will ye judge unjustly and accept persons of the wicked? Selah

³ Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy.

⁴ Deliver the poor and needy; rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.

⁵ They know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

⁶ I have said, “Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.”

⁷ But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.

⁸ Arise, O God, judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations.

⁴ Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept His commandments; and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.

⁵ But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”

⁶ Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes.

⁷ They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid to profane My holy name.

⁸ And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid in pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

⁹ “Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath.

¹⁰ Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹ And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel?” saith the Lord.

⁹ And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him

¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹ “Now there came a dearth and great affliction over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he first sent out our fathers.

¹³ And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph’s kindred were made known unto Pharaoh.

¹⁴ Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

¹⁵ So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers.

¹⁶ And they were carried back into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.