Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

10 Why do you stand afar off, O LORD, hiding Yourself in time of trouble?

² With pride, the wicked persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the crafts that they have imagined.

³ For the wicked has boasted of his own heart’s desire; and the covetous blesses himself and despises the LORD.

⁴ The wicked is so proud that he does not seek. He thinks always, “There is no God.”

⁵ His ways always prosper. Your judgments are high above his sight. He defies all his enemies.

⁶ He says in his heart, “I shall never be moved, nor be in danger.”

⁷ His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.

⁸ He lies in wait in the villages. He murders the innocent in the secret places. His eyes are bent against the poor.

⁹ He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws him into his net.

¹⁰ He crouches and bows. Therefore, heaps of the poor fall by his might.

¹¹ He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face and will never see.”

¹² Arise, O LORD God. Lift up Your hand. Do not forget the poor.

¹³ Why do the wicked despise God? He says in his heart, “You will not see.”

¹⁴ Yet You have seen it. For You behold mischief and wrong, so that You may take it into Your hands. The poor commits himself to You. You are the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked and malicious. Search his wickedness until you shall find none.

¹⁶ The LORD is King forever and ever. The heathen are destroyed from His land.

¹⁷ LORD, You have heard the desire of the oppressed. You prepare their heart. You bend Your ear

¹⁸ to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, so that earthly man causes no more fear. To him who excels: A Psalm of David.

²⁷ “Therefore, you shall speak all these Words to them. But they will not hear you. You shall also cry to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸ “But you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not hear the Voice of the LORD their God or receive discipline. Truth has perished and has been cut out of their mouth.

²⁹ ‘Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. And take up a complaint on the high places. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

³⁰ “For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the House upon which My Name is called, to pollute it.

³¹ “And they have built the high place of Tophet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not Command them. Nor did it come into My Heart.

³² “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it shall not be called Tophet anymore, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet until there is no place.

³³ “And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And no one shall frighten them away.

³⁴ “Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.”

⁶ It also happened that on another Sabbath, He entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was dried up.

⁷ And the scribes and Pharisees watched Him, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.

⁸ But He knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise, and stand up in the midst.” And he arose and stood up.

⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you a question: Which is lawful on the Sabbath days - to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy?”

¹⁰ And He looked around at them all and said to the man, “Stretch forth your hand.” And he did so. And his hand was restored again, as whole as the other.

¹¹ Then they were filled with madness and discussed what they might do to Jesus.