Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

58 (For the one directing. Set to Do Not Destroy. Mikhtam Dovid). Do ye indeed decree tzedek, O elim (g-ds, Ex 22:28[27])? Do ye judge uprightly the Bnei Adam?

^2 (3) No, in lev (heart) ye work wickedness; ye weigh out the chamas (violence) of your hands in Ha’Aretz.

^3 (4) The resha’im are perverted from the rekhem (womb); gone astray from birth are they, speaking kazav (lie, falsehood).

^4 (5) Their venom is like the venom of a nachash; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth its ear;

^5 (6) That it may not pay heed to the voice of charmers, casting spells ever so cunningly.

^6 (7) Break their teeth, O Elohim, in their mouth; tear out the fangs of the young lions, Hashem.

^7 (8) Let them melt away like draining mayim; when he bendeth his bow to shoot his khitzim (arrows), let them be crumbled to pieces.

^8 (9) As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away; like the stillborn child of an isha, that they may not see the shemesh.

^9 (10) Before your sirot (pots) can feel the burning thorns, may He with a whirlwind blow them away, both green and dry alike.

^10 (11) The tzaddik shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash feet in the dahm harasha.

^11 (12) So that adam shall say, Verily there is a reward for the tzaddik; verily yesh Elohim Shofetim ba’aretz (there is a G-d that judgeth in the earth).

3 They say, If an ish put away [in divorce] his isha, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that eretz be defiled and forbidden? But thou hast played the zonah with re’im rabbim (many lovers); yet shuv (turn) to Me, saith Hashem.

² Lift up thine eyes unto the hilltops, and see! Where hast thou not been lain with? In the drakhim (ways, roads) hast thou sat [waiting] for them, as the nomad in the midbar; and thou hast defiled the eretz with thy zenut (whoredom, prostitution) and with thy ra’ah (wickedness).

³ Therefore the revivim (showers) have been withheld, and there hath been no malkosh (latter rain, spring rain); and thou hadst a metzach isha zonah (whore’s forehead), and thou refusedst to blush with shame.

⁴ Wilt thou not from this time cry unto Me, Avi, Thou art the Alluf (Guide, Friend) of my neurim (youth)?

⁵ Will He reserve His anger l’olam? Will He keep it lanetzach? Hinei, this is what you preach, but you practice all hara’ot (the evils) you can.

⁶ Hashem said also unto me in the days of Yoshiyah HaMelech, Hast thou seen that which meshuvah Yisroel (backsliding Yisroel) hath done? She is gone up upon every high hill and under every green tree, and there hath played the zonah.

⁷ And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto Me. But she returned not. And her treacherous achot Yehudah saw it [i.e., saw Israel’s refusal to renounce fertility cult idolatry].

⁸ And I saw, when for all the causes whereby meshuvah Yisroel (backsliding Yisroel) committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a sefer keritut (bill of divorce); yet her treacherous achot Yehudah feared not, but went and played the zonah also.

⁹ And it came to pass through the lightness with which she [Yisroel] took her zenut (whoredom), that she defiled HaAretz, and committed adultery with HaEven (the Stone [of the fertility cult of Ba’al worship]) and with HaEtz (the Wood [of the fertility cult of Ba’al worship]).

¹⁰ And yet for all this her treacherous achot Yehudah hath not returned unto Me with her kol lev, but in sheker (falsity, pretense, an insincere religious spirit), saith Hashem.

¹¹ And Hashem said unto me, Meshuvah Yisroel hath come nearer to justifying herself than treacherous Yehudah.

¹² Go and proclaim these devarim toward the north, and say, Return, thou meshuvah Yisroel, saith Hashem; and I will not cast down Mine anger to fall upon you; for I am chasid (displaying chesed, mercy), saith Hashem, and I will not keep anger l’olam.

¹³ Only acknowledge thine avon (iniquity, guilt of wrongdoing), that thou hast rebelled against Hashem your G-d, and hast scattered thy favors to the zarim under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith Hashem.

¹⁴ Shuvu (Turn), O banim shovaviv (backsliding children), saith Hashem; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one from a town, and two from a mishpakhah, and I will bring you to Tziyon:

1 Sha’ul an eved of Hashem and a Shliach of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua, for the furtherance of the [charedi (orthodox)] emunah of the Bechirei Hashem (chosen ones of G-d) and of da’as HaEmes (knowledge of the Truth) as pertains to chasidus [in Moshiach].

² The mekor (basis) of this is a tikvah of Chayyei Olam which Hashem Who cannot speak sheker [BAMIDBAR 24:19; SHMUEL ALEF 15:29] promised before the Yamim HaOlam (days of eternity),

³ But revealed at the proper time Hashem’s dvar [Besuras HaGeulah] in the hachrazah (proclamation, kerygma), with which I was entrusted, according to the mitzvat Hashem Moshieynu.

⁴ To Titos, beni ha’amitti baEmunah (my true son in the faith), the [orthodox Jewish] emunah shared in common. Chen v’Chesed Hashem and Shalom from Elohim HaAv and Moshiach Yehoshua Moshieynu.

⁵ For this reason I left you in Crete that you should set beseder (according to acceptable order) what remains and give messianic s’michah to Zekenim (SHEMOT 12:21) city by city, as I directed you.

⁶ If anyone is without reproach, a ba’al isha echat (a one woman man/master, see OJB, p.1078, 1Ti 3:2; 5:9), his banim being ma’aminim in Moshiach, and not under accusation of debauchery and zenut or sorrut (rebelliousness, insubordination) [1Sm 2:22-25],

⁷ For it is necessary for the congregational Mashgiach Ruchani to be without reproach as Hashem’s mefake’ach al Beis Hashem (steward or supervisor of the House of G-d), not a ba’al gaavah (a haughty person), not quick in ka’as (anger), not a shikkor (drunkard) given to much wine, not violent, not a gelt-loving kamtzan (miser).

⁸ Rather, the Mashgiach Ruchani must be one who practices hachnosas orchim (hospitality), an ohev es haTov (a lover of the good), having seichel, a tzaddik, kadosh (holy), with shlitah atzmi (self-control),

⁹ Devoted to the faithful hatafah (preaching) of the Besuras HaGeulah, adequate for hora’ah (teaching) that exhorts to [Moshiach’s] orthodox Jewish doctrine and for refuting and exposing with conviction the ones speaking against it.