Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God the Rock of Salvation
71 In (A)You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 (B)Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
(C)Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 (D)Be my [a]strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the (E)commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
4 (F)Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For You are (G)my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
6 (H)By You I have been [b]upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
Impending Destruction from the North
6 “O you children of Benjamin,
Gather yourselves to flee from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
And set up a signal-fire in (A)Beth Haccerem;
(B)For disaster appears out of the north,
And great destruction.
2 I have likened the daughter of Zion
To a lovely and delicate woman.
3 The (C)shepherds with their flocks shall come to her.
They shall pitch their tents against her all around.
Each one shall pasture in his own place.”
4 “Prepare(D) war against her;
Arise, and let us go up (E)at noon.
Woe to us, for the day goes away,
For the shadows of the evening are lengthening.
5 Arise, and let us go by night,
And let us destroy her palaces.”
6 For thus has the Lord of hosts said:
“Cut down trees,
And build a mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished.
She is full of oppression in her midst.
7 (F)As a fountain [a]wells up with water,
So she wells up with her wickedness.
(G)Violence and plundering are heard in her.
Before Me continually are [b]grief and wounds.
8 Be instructed, O Jerusalem,
Lest (H)My soul depart from you;
Lest I make you desolate,
A land not inhabited.”
9 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“They shall thoroughly glean as a vine the remnant of Israel;
As a grape-gatherer, put your hand back into the branches.”
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning,
That they may hear?
Indeed their (I)ear is uncircumcised,
And they cannot give heed.
Behold, (J)the word of the Lord is a reproach to them;
They have no delight in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord.
(K)I am weary of holding it in.
“I will pour it out (L)on the children outside,
And on the assembly of young men together;
For even the husband shall be taken with the wife,
The aged with him who is full of days.
12 And (M)their houses shall be turned over to others,
Fields and wives together;
For I will stretch out My hand
Against the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord.
13 “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them,
Everyone is given to (N)covetousness;
And from the prophet even to the (O)priest,
Everyone deals falsely.
14 They have also (P)healed the [c]hurt of My people [d]slightly,
(Q)Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
15 Were they (R)ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed;
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time I punish them,
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the (S)old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find (T)rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 Also, I set (U)watchmen over you, saying,
(V)‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not listen.’
18 Therefore hear, you nations,
And know, O congregation, what is among them.
19 (W)Hear, O earth!
Behold, I will certainly bring (X)calamity on this people—
(Y)The fruit of their thoughts,
Because they have not heeded My words
Nor My law, but rejected it.
The Discipline of God(A)
3 (B)For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, (C)lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 (D)You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
(E)“My son, do not despise the [a]chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For (F)whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 (G)If[b] you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what (H)son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, (I)of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to (J)the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, (K)that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no [c]chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields (L)the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Renew Your Spiritual Vitality(M)
12 Therefore (N)strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 (O)Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, (P)without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone (Q)fall short of the grace of God; lest any (R)root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any (S)fornicator or [d]profane person like Esau, (T)who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was (U)rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.