Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

58 Is it true? O congregation, do you speak justly? O sons of men, do you judge uprightly?

² Indeed, rather, you imagine mischief in your heart. Your hands execute cruelty upon the Earth.

³ The wicked are strangers from the womb. From the belly, they have erred and speak lies.

⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; like the deaf adder that stops its ear

⁵ It does not hear the voice of the enchanter (though he is most expert in charming).

⁶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths. Break the jaws of the young lions, O LORD.

⁷ Let them melt like the waters. Let them pass away. When he shoots his arrows, let them be broken.

⁸ Let them proceed as a snail that melts, and like the stillborn child of a woman who has not seen the Sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns, let Him carry them away as green, with a whirlwind, in His wrath.

¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ And men shall say, “Truly, there is fruit for the righteous. Doubtless, there is a God Who judges on the Earth.” To him who excels: Do not destroy. A Psalm of David on Michtam, when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him

3 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, shall he return again to her? Shall not this land be polluted?’ But you have played the harlot, with many lovers, yet turn again to me,” says the LORD.

² “Lift up your eyes to the high places, and behold where you have not played the harlot. You have sat, waiting for them on the way, as the Arabian in the wilderness. And you have polluted the land with your whoredoms, and with your malice.

³ “Therefore the showers have been restrained, and the latter rain came not, and you had a whore’s forehead. You would not be ashamed.

⁴ “Did you not still cry to Me, ‘You are My Father, the guide of my youth?

⁵ ‘Will He keep His anger forever? Will He reserve it to the end?’ Thus have you spoken, but you still do evil, more and more.”

⁶ The LORD also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what this rebel Israel has done? She has gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.

⁷ “And I said, when she had done all this, ‘Turn to Me.’ But she did not return, as her rebellious sister Judah saw.

⁸ “Then I saw how that for all the occasions rebellious Israel had played the harlot, and I had cast her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet her rebellious sister, Judah, was not afraid. And she also went and played the harlot.

⁹ “So that because of the lightness of her whoredom, she has even defiled the land. For she has committed fornication with stones and trees.

¹⁰ “Nevertheless, for all this, her rebellious sister Judah has not returned to Me with her whole heart, but deceptively,” says the LORD.

¹¹ And the LORD said to me, “The rebellious Israel has justified herself more than the rebellious Judah.

¹² “Go and cry these Words toward the North, and say, ‘You disobedient Israel, return,’ says the LORD, ‘and I will not let My wrath fall upon you.’ For I am merciful,” says the LORD, “and I will not always keep My anger.

¹³ “But know your iniquity. For you have rebelled against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strange gods under every green tree. But you would not obey My Voice,” says the LORD.

¹⁴ “O you disobedient children, turn again,” says the LORD, “for I am your LORD. And I will take you, one from a city, and two from a tribe, and will bring you to Zion.

1 Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s Elect and the acknowledging of the Truth which is according to godliness;

² in the hope of eternal life - which God, Who cannot lie, has promised since before the world began.

³ But He has revealed His Word in due time through preaching, which is committed to me according to the Commandment of God our Savior,

⁴ To Titus, my natural son according to the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

⁵ For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you would continue to organize the things which remain, and would ordain elders in every city, as I directed you

⁶ (if any are blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of wastefulness or disobedient).

⁷ For an overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not willful, not angry, not given to wine, not a brawler, not greedy;

⁸ but one who loves strangers and goodness, is wise, righteous, holy, temperate,

⁹ holding fast the faithful Word according to doctrine, so that he may also be able to encourage with sound doctrine and convince those who speak against it.