Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

58 ^1-2 Justice? You high and mighty politicians don’t even know the meaning of the word! Fairness? Which of you has any left? Not one! All your dealings are crooked: you give “justice” in exchange for bribes.^{[a] 3} These men are born sinners, lying from their earliest words! ^4-5 They are poisonous as deadly snakes, cobras that close their ears to the most expert of charmers.

⁶ O God, break off their fangs. Tear out the teeth of these young lions, Lord. ⁷ Let them disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands.^{[b] 8} Let them be as snails that dissolve into slime and as those who die at birth, who never see the sun. ⁹ God will sweep away both old and young. He will destroy them more quickly than a cooking pot can feel the blazing fire of thorns beneath it.

¹⁰ The godly shall rejoice in the triumph of right;^[c] they shall walk the bloodstained fields of slaughtered, wicked men. ¹¹ Then at last everyone will know that good is rewarded, and that there is a God who judges justly here on earth.

¹⁵ And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with wisdom and understanding.

¹⁶ Then, when your land is once more filled with people, says the Lord, you will no longer wish for “the good old days of long ago” when you possessed the Ark of God’s covenant. Those days will not be missed or even thought about, and the Ark will not be reconstructed, for the Lord himself will be among you. ¹⁷ The whole city of Jerusalem will be known as the throne of the Lord; all nations will come to him there and no longer stubbornly follow their evil desires. ¹⁸ At that time the people of Judah and of Israel will return together from their exile in the north, to the land I gave their fathers as an inheritance forever. ¹⁹ And I thought how wonderful it would be for you to be here among my children. I planned to give you part of this beautiful land, the finest in the world. I looked forward to your calling me “Father” and thought that you would never turn away from me again. ²⁰ But you have betrayed me; you have gone off and given yourself to a host of foreign gods; you have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband.

²¹ I hear a voice high upon the windswept mountains, crying, crying. It is the sons of Israel who have turned their backs on God and wandered far away. ²² O my rebellious children, come back to me again and I will heal you from your sins.

And they reply, Yes, we will come, for you are the Lord our God. ²³ We are weary of worshiping idols on the hills and of having orgies on the mountains. It is all a farce. Only in the Lord our God can Israel ever find her help and her salvation. ²⁴ From our childhood we have seen everything our fathers had—flocks and herds and sons and daughters—squandered on priests and idols. ²⁵ We lie in shame and in dishonor, for we and our fathers have sinned from childhood against the Lord our God; we have not obeyed him.

¹⁵ Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a privilege it would be to get into the Kingdom of God!”

¹⁶ Jesus replied with this illustration: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. ¹⁷ When all was ready, he sent his servant around to notify the guests that it was time for them to arrive. ¹⁸ But they all began making excuses. One said he had just bought a field and wanted to inspect it, and asked to be excused. ¹⁹ Another said he had just bought five pair of oxen and wanted to try them out. ²⁰ Another had just been married and for that reason couldn’t come.

²¹ “The servant returned and reported to his master what they had said. His master was angry and told him to go quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and to invite the beggars, crippled, lame, and blind. ²² But even then, there was still room.

²³ “‘Well, then,’ said his master, ‘go out into the country lanes and out behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. ²⁴ For none of those I invited first will get even the smallest taste of what I had prepared for them.’”