Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 52
God Judges the Proud
For the choir director. A Maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)
1 Why boast about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
2 Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
3 You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)Selah
4 You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)
5 This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)Selah
6 The righteous will see and fear,
and they will derisively say about that hero,[a](H)
7 “Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”(I)
Woe to the Complacent
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion(A)
and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—
the notable people in this first of the nations,
those the house of Israel comes to.
2 Cross over to Calneh(B) and see;
go from there to great Hamath;(C)
then go down to Gath(D) of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
3 You dismiss any thought of the evil day(E)
and bring in a reign of violence.(F)
4 They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,(G)
sprawled out on their couches,(H)
and dine on lambs from the flock(I)
and calves from the stall.
5 They improvise songs[a] to the sound of the harp(J)
and invent[b] their own musical instruments like David.(K)
6 They drink wine by the bowlful(L)
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.(M)
7 Therefore, they will now go into exile
as the first of the captives,(N)
and the feasting(O) of those who sprawl out
will come to an end.
Israel’s Pride Judged
8 The Lord God has sworn by himself(P)—this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Armies:
I loathe Jacob’s pride(Q)
and hate his citadels,(R)
so I will hand over the city(S) and everything in it.
9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die.(T) 10 A close relative[c] and burner[d](U) will remove his corpse[e] from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you?”
That person will reply, “None.”
Then he will say, “Silence, because the Lord’s name must not be invoked.”(V)
11 For the Lord commands:
The large house will be smashed to pieces,
and the small house to rubble.(W)
12 Do horses gallop on the cliffs?
Does anyone plow there with oxen?[f]
Yet you have turned justice into poison(X)
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood(Y)—
13 you who rejoice over Lo-debar(Z)
and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim
for ourselves by our own strength?” (AA)
14 But look, I am raising up a nation
against you, house of Israel(AB)—
this is the declaration of the Lord,
the God of Armies—
and they will oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath[g](AC)
to the Brook of the Arabah.[h]
The Parable of the Sower
4 As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, he said in a parable,(A) 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6 Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up, it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.”(B) As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”(C)
Why Jesus Used Parables
9 Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?” (D) 10 So he said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you(E) to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that
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