Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of Asaph.

79 O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance: thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

² The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowl of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth:

³ Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury [them].

⁴ We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision to them that are round about us.

⁵ How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

⁶ Pour out thy fury upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name:

⁷ For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation.

⁸ Remember not against us the iniquities of [our] forefathers; let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us: for we are brought very low.

⁹ Help us, O God of our salvation, because of the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake.

¹⁰ Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants that is shed be known among the nations in our sight.

¹¹ Let the groaning of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thine arm, preserve those that are appointed to die;

¹² And render unto our neighbours, sevenfold into their bosom, their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

¹³ And we, thy people and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks unto thee for ever; we will shew forth thy praise from generation to generation.

5 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops; he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

² (And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me [who is] to be Ruler in Israel: whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.)

³ Therefore will he give them up, until the time when she which travaileth shall have brought forth: and the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

⁴ And he shall stand and feed [his flock] in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God. And they shall abide; for now shall he be great even unto the ends of the earth.

⁵ And this [man] shall be Peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight princes of men.

³⁴ But take heed to yourselves lest possibly your hearts be laden with surfeiting and drinking and cares of life, and that day come upon you suddenly unawares;

³⁵ for as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth.

³⁶ Watch therefore, praying at every season, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things which are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

³⁷ And by day he was teaching in the temple, and by night, going out, he remained abroad on the mountain called [the mount] of Olives;

³⁸ and all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.