Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ The Eternal said to my lord,
    “Sit here at My right hand,
    in the place of honor and power,
And I will gather your enemies together,
    lead them in on hands and knees;
    you will rest your feet on their backs.”

² The Eternal will extend your reach as you rule
    from your throne on Zion.
    You will be out in enemy lands, ruling.
³ Your people will come as volunteers that day; they will be a sight to see:
    on that day, you will lead your army, noble in their holiness.
As the new day dawns and dew settles on the grass,
    your young volunteers will make their way to you.
⁴ The Eternal has sworn an oath
    and cannot change His mind:
“You are a priest forever—
    in the honored order of Melchizedek.”

⁵ The lord is at Your right hand;
    on the day that his fury comes to its peak, he will crush kings.
⁶ You will see the dead in heaps at the roadside,
    corpses spread far and wide in valleys and on hillsides.
Rulers and military leaders will lie among them without distinction.
    This will be his judgment on the nations.
⁷ There is a brook along the way.
    He will stop there and drink;
And when he is finished,
    he will raise his head.

²⁰ There’s another voice in town.
    It belongs to Lady Wisdom, who calls out in the street.
    She cries out in the town square,
²¹ At the city gates, in the noisy city streets,
    you can hear her speaking over the racket.

²² Lady Wisdom: You simple, naive people, how long will you love your feeble ways?
    You simpletons, how long will you enjoy making fun of what you don’t understand?
        You fools, how long will you hate learning what truly matters?
²³     Turn to me and receive my gentle correction;
    Watch and I will pour out my spirit on you;
        I will share with you my wise words in order to redirect your lives.
²⁴     You hear, but you have refused to answer my call.
        My hands reached out, but no one noticed.
²⁵     All my advice, all my correction, all have been neglected—
        you wanted nothing of them.
²⁶     So I will be the laughter you hear when misfortune comes, and it will come.
        I will be the mocking sound when panic grips you—
²⁷     When panic comes like a stormy blast,
        when misfortune sweeps in like a whirlwind,
        when sorrow and anguish weigh you down.

²⁸ This is when they will call on me, but I will not respond;
    they will be frantic to find me, but they won’t be able.
²⁹ Because they despised knowledge of my ways,
    and they also refused to respect and honor the Eternal,
³⁰ Because they rejected my advice
    and turned down my correction,
³¹ They will surely get what’s coming to them:
    they’ll be forced to eat the fruit of their wicked ways;
    they’ll gorge themselves on the consequences of their choices.
³² You see, it’s turning away from me that brings death to the simple,
    and it’s self-satisfaction that destroys the fools.
³³ But those who listen to me now will live under divine protection;
    they can rest knowing they are out of harm’s way.

God opposes the proud,
    but He pours out grace on the humble.^[b]