Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ God presides over heaven’s court;
    he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings:
² “How long will you hand down unjust decisions
    by favoring the wicked? Interlude

³ “Give justice to the poor and the orphan;
    uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.
⁴ Rescue the poor and helpless;
    deliver them from the grasp of evil people.
⁵ But these oppressors know nothing;
    they are so ignorant!
They wander about in darkness,
    while the whole world is shaken to the core.
⁶ I say, ‘You are gods;
    you are all children of the Most High.
⁷ But you will die like mere mortals
    and fall like every other ruler.’”

⁸ Rise up, O God, and judge the earth,
    for all the nations belong to you.

“The people of Judah have sinned again and again,
    and I will not let them go unpunished!
They have rejected the instruction of the Lord,
    refusing to obey his decrees.
They have been led astray by the same lies
    that deceived their ancestors.
⁵ So I will send down fire on Judah,
    and all the fortresses of Jerusalem will be destroyed.”

“The people of Israel have sinned again and again,
    and I will not let them go unpunished!
They sell honorable people for silver
    and poor people for a pair of sandals.
⁷ They trample helpless people in the dust
    and shove the oppressed out of the way.
Both father and son sleep with the same woman,
    corrupting my holy name.
⁸ At their religious festivals,
    they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security.
In the house of their gods,^[a]
    they drink wine bought with unjust fines.

⁹ “But as my people watched,
    I destroyed the Amorites,
though they were as tall as cedars
    and as strong as oaks.
I destroyed the fruit on their branches
    and dug out their roots.
¹⁰ It was I who rescued you from Egypt
    and led you through the desert for forty years,
    so you could possess the land of the Amorites.
¹¹ I chose some of your sons to be prophets
    and others to be Nazirites.
Can you deny this, my people of Israel?”
    asks the Lord.