Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

52 Why do you boast of your wickedness, O man of power? The lovingkindness of God endures daily.

² Your tongue imagines mischief, like a sharp razor that cuts deceitfully.

³ You love evil more than good, lies more than to speak the truth. Selah.

⁴ You love all words that may destroy. O deceitful tongue!

⁵ So shall God destroy you forever. He shall take you and pluck you out of your tabernacle, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.

⁶ Also, the righteous shall see it, and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying,

⁷ “Behold the man who did not take God for His strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches and put his strength in his malice.”

⁸ But I shall be like a green olive tree in the House of God. I trusted in the mercy of God forever and ever.

⁹ I will always praise You because You have done this. And I will hope in Your Name because it is good before Your saints. To him who excels on Mahalath: A Psalm of David to give instruction

6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; who were famous at the beginning of the nations. And the House of Israel came to them.

² Go to Calneh and see. And from there go to Hamath the Great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or is the border of their land greater than your border,

³ you who put far away the evil day, and approach the seat of iniquity?

⁴ They lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their beds; and eat the lambs of the flock and the calves out of the stall.

⁵ They sing to the sound of the viol. They invent to themselves instruments of music, like David.

⁶ They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but are not sorry for the affliction of Joseph.

⁷ Therefore, they shall now go captive with the first who go captive. And the sorrow of those who stretched themselves is at hand.

⁸ “The LORD God has sworn by Himself,” says the LORD God of Hosts, “I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces. Therefore, I will deliver up the city with all that is therein.

⁹ “And if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

¹⁰ “And his uncle shall take him up and burn him—to carry out the bones out of the house—and shall say to him who is by the sides of the house, ‘Is there still anyone with you?’ And he shall say, ‘None.’ Then he shall say, ‘Hold your tongue. For we may not remember the Name of the LORD.’”

¹¹ For behold, the LORD commands. And He will strike the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

¹² Shall horses run upon the rock? Or will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.

¹³ Yet, you rejoice over nothing. You say, “Have we not gotten horns by our own strength?”

¹⁴ “But behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O House of Israel,” says the LORD God of Hosts. “And they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.”

⁴ Now when many people had gathered together and come to Him out of all the cities, He spoke a parable.

⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. And it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of heaven devoured it.

⁶ “And some fell on the stones. And after it sprang up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

⁷ “And some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

⁸ “And some fell on good ground. And it sprang up and bore fruit, a hundredfold.” And as He said these things, He cried, “The one who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

⁹ Then His disciples asked Him what parable that was.

¹⁰ And He said, “To you it is given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But to others they come in parables. So that when they see, they will not see. And when they hear, they will not understand.