Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the Director: To the tune of[a] “Doe of the Dawn”.
A Davidic Psalm.
God Delivers His Suffering Servant
22 My God! My God!
Why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far from delivering me—
from my groaning words?
2 My God, I cry out to you throughout the day,
but you do not answer;
and throughout the night,
but I have no rest.[b]
3 You are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried out to you and escaped;
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
6 But as for me,
I am only a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by people.
7 Everyone who sees me mocks me;
they gape at me with open mouths
and shake their heads at me.
8 They say,[c] “Commit yourself to the Lord;
perhaps the Lord[d] will deliver him,
perhaps he will cause him to escape,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet, you are the one who took me from the womb,
and kept me safe on my mother’s breasts.
10 I was dependent on you from birth;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be so distant from me,
for trouble is at hand;
indeed, there is no deliverer.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me;
the vicious bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13 Their mouths are opened wide toward me,
like roaring and attacking lions.
14 I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, melting within me.
15 My strength is dried up like broken pottery;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,[e]
and you have brought me down to the dust of death.
Job Laments and Prepares for Death
17 “My spirit is crushed,
my days are over;[a]
it’s the grave for me!
2 Mockers surround me;
I cannot stop staring at their hostility all through the night.
3 Offer, then, some collateral on my behalf.
Is there anyone who will be my guarantor?
4 “Because you’re the one who closed their hearts to compassion;[b]
therefore, you won’t let them triumph.
5 Now as for the one who testifies against his friends
to take their property,[c]
even the eyes of his children will fail.
6 “He has made me a byword among people;
I’m being spit on in the face.
7 My eyes have grown weak from grief;
and my whole body is as thin as a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled over this,
and the innocent person is troubled by the godless.
9 But the righteous person will hold to his way,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.”
Job Prepares for Death
10 “Come here now, all of you,
and I won’t find a wise person among you.
11 My days are passed;
my plans have been shattered;
along with my heart’s desires.
12 They have transformed night into day—
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is about to become dark.’
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me
during the time of testing in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested me,
even though they had seen my actions 10 for 40 years.
That is why I was indignant with that generation and said,
‘They are always going astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So in my anger I swore a solemn oath
that they would never enter my rest.”[a]
12 See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God. 13 Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, 14 because we are the Messiah’s[b] partners only if we hold on to our original confidence to the end.[c] 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me.”[d]
16 Now who heard him and provoked him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led[e] by Moses? 17 And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.
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