Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
An instruction[a] of Asaph
A Plea for Deliverance
74 Why, God? Have you rejected us forever?
Your anger is burning against the sheep of your pasture.
2 Remember your community,
whom you purchased long ago,
the tribe whom you redeemed
for your possession.
Remember[b] Mount Zion,
where you live.
3 Hurry! Look at the permanent ruins—
every calamity the enemy brought upon the Holy Place.
4 Those who are opposing you roar
where we were meeting with you;
they unfurl their war banners as signs.
5 As one blazes a trail
through a forest with an ax,
6 now they’re tearing down all its carved work
with hatchets and hammers.
7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground,
desecrating your dwelling place.
8 They say to themselves,
“We’ll crush them completely;”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We see no signs for us;
there is no longer a prophet,
and no one among us knows the future.[c]
10 God, how long will the adversary scorn
while the enemy despises your name endlessly?
11 Why do you not withdraw your hand—
your right hand—from your bosom
and destroy them?[d]
12 But God is my king from ancient times,
who brings acts of deliverance throughout the earth.
13 You split the sea by your own power.
You shattered the heads of sea monsters in the water.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan.
You set it as food for desert creatures.[e]
15 You opened both the spring and the river;
you dried up flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day, and yours is the night;
you established the moon and the sun.
17 You set all the boundaries of the earth;
you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this: The enemy scorns the Lord
and a foolish people despises your name.
19 Don’t hand over the life of your dove to beasts;
do not continuously forget your afflicted ones.
20 Pay attention to your covenant,
for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.
21 Don’t let the oppressed return in humiliation.
The poor and needy will praise your name.
22 Get up, God, and prosecute your case—
remember that you’re being scorned
by fools all day long.
23 Don’t ignore the shout of those opposing you,
The uproar of those who rebel against you continuously.
Israel’s Deliverance
27 At that time,[a] with his fierce, mighty, and powerful sword, the Lord will punish the gliding serpent Leviathan—the coiling serpent Leviathan—and he will kill the dragon that’s in the sea.
2 At that time,[b]
“A fermenting[c] vineyard—
sing about it!
3 I, the Lord, watch over it
And I water it continuously.
I guard it night and day
so no one can harm it.
4 I am not angry.
If only the vineyard[d] could give me briers and thorns[e] to battle,
I would march against it,
and[f] I would burn it all up.
5 Or else let it lay claim to my protection;
let it make peace with me,
yes, let it make peace with me.”
6 In times to come, Jacob will take root,
and[g] Israel will blossom, sprout shoots,
and fill the whole world with fruit.
7 Has the Lord[h] struck them down,
just as he struck down those who struck them?
Or have they been killed,
just as their killers were killed?
8 Measure by measure,[i]
in their exile you contended with them;
with his fierce blast he removed them,
as on a day when the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for,
and this will be the full harvest
that comes from the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the altar stones
like pulverized chalkstones,
no Asherah[j] poles or incense altars will be left standing.
10 For the fortified city stands desolate,
a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert;
calves graze there,
and there they lie down
and strip bare its branches.
11 When its branches are dry,
they are broken off,
and women come and kindle fires with them,
since this is a people who show no consideration.
That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion;
the One who created them shows them no mercy.
Assyria and Egypt Exiles Redeemed
12 At that time,[k] the Lord will winnow grain from the Euphrates River[l] channel to the Wadi[m] of Egypt,[n] and you will be gathered in one by one, O people of Israel. 13 Furthermore, at that time,[o] a great trumpet will be sounded, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and those who had been expelled[p] to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on his holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Confrontation in the Temple over Money(A)
45 Then Jesus[a] went into the Temple and began to throw out those who were selling things. 46 He told them, “It is written, ‘My house is to be called a house of prayer,’[b] but you have turned it into a hideout[c] for bandits!”
47 Then he began teaching in the Temple every day. The high priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him, 48 but they couldn’t find a way to do it, because all the people were eager to hear him.
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