Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer to Restore Israel
For the music director, according to The Lilies.
A testimony. Of Asaph. A psalm.[a]
80 Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
who leads Joseph like a flock.
Shine forth, you who sits enthroned above the cherubim.
2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
stir up your power
and come for our salvation.
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You prepared a place before it,
and it took deep root[a] and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
and the mighty cedars with its boughs.
11 It spread its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the river.
12 Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass on the road pluck fruit from it?
13 Swine from the forests devour[b] it
and creatures of the field feed on it.
14 Please return, O God of hosts.
Observe from heaven and see,
and pay attention to this vine,
15 eventhe stalk that your right hand planted,
and concerning the shoot[c] you strengthened for yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, cut down.
They perish at the rebuke of your face.
17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
on the son of humankind whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn back from you.
Restore us to life, and we will proclaim your name.
19 O Yahweh God of hosts, restore us;
cause your face to shine that we may be saved.
Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem
3 For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support[a]
from Jerusalem and from Judah:
all of the supplies of bread
and all of the supplies of water,
2 mighty warrior and man of war,
judge and prophet,
and diviner and elder,
3 captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,
and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make boys their princes,
and children shall rule over them.
5 And the people will be oppressed by each other[b]
and a man by his neighbor.
The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the dishonorable toward the honorable.
6 Indeed, a man will seize his brother
in the house of his father:
“You have a cloak;[c]
you shall be a leader for us,
and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”
7 He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is no bread
and there is no cloak.
You shall not make me the leader of the people!”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen
because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,
defying the eyes of his glory.
9 The look on their faces testifies against them
and they declare their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have dealt out evil to themselves.
10 Tell the innocent[d] that it is good
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked![e] It is bad!
For what is done by his hands will be done to him.
12 My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
My people, your leaders are misleading you,
and they confuse the course of your paths.
13 Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case
and takes his stand to judge the peoples.
14 Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.
“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses!
15 Why[f] do you crush my people
and grind the face of the poor?”
declares[g] the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
The Pride of Jerusalem’s Women
16 And Yahweh said: “Because[h] the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and they walk with outstretched neck,
and they give flirting glances with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,[i]
and with their feet they rattle their bangles,[j]
17 the Lord will make the heads[k] of the daughters of Zion scabby,
and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”
32 But remember the former days in which, after you[a] were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed both to insults and to afflictions, and sometimes becoming sharers with those who were treated in this way. 34 For you both sympathized with the prisoners and put up with the seizure of your belongings with joy because you[b] knew that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, in order that after you[c] have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet
“a very, very little while,
and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But my righteous one will live by faith,
and if he shrinks back, my soul is not well pleased with him.”[d]
39 But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but among those who have faith to the preservation of our souls.
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