Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
There Is No God?
Psalm 14
1 For the music director, of David.
The fool said in his heart:
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt; their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.[a]
2 Adonai looked down from heaven on the children of men,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They all turned aside, became corrupt.
There is no one who does good
—not even one.
4 “Will evildoers never understand—
those who consume My people as they eat bread—
and never call on Adonai?”
5 There they are, in great dread.
For God is with the righteous generation.
6 You would frustrate the plan of the lowly.
Surely Adonai is his refuge!
7 O may He give Israel’s salvation out of Zion!
When Adonai restores His captive people,
Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad!
4 “If you will return, O Israel,
return to Me,” declares Adonai.
“If you will put your detestable things out of My sight.
Then you will not waver.
2 You will swear, ‘As Adonai lives!’
in truth, in justice and in righteousness.
The nations will bless themselves in Him
and in Him they will glory.”
3 Thus says Adonai to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Break up your unplowed ground
and do not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to Adonai
and remove the foreskins of your heart,
men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Else My wrath will break out like fire and blaze,
with no one to quench it,
because of your evil deeds!”
Imminent Invasion from the North
5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, saying:
“Blow the shofar in the land!”
Cry aloud and say,
“Assemble yourselves!
Let us go into the fortified cities.”
6 “Raise a banner toward Zion!
Take refuge! Do not delay!
For I bring calamity from the north,
even terrible destruction.
7 A lion has come up from his thicket—
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
to make your land a wasteland.
Your cities will lie in ruins,
without inhabitant.
8 Therefore, put on sackcloth—
lament and wail!
For the fierce anger of Adonai
has not turned away from us.”
9 “It will happen in that day”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“that the king’s heart will fail,
as will the heart of the princes.
The kohanim will be appalled,
and the prophets will be stunned.”
10 Then I said, “Alas, Adonai Elohim! How completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem saying, ‘You will have shalom,’ until the sword touches the soul!”
False Teachers Condemned
2 But false prophets also arose among the people,[a] just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them[b]—bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 In their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol.[c] He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment. [d] 5 He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. 6 He devastated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes[e]—making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. 7 He rescued Lot, a righteous man deeply troubled by the shameless immorality of the wicked. [f] 8 (For that righteous man, while living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by lawless deeds he saw and heard.) 9 Therefore the Lord certainly knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and how to keep the unrighteous being punished until the Day of Judgment— 10 especially those who follow after the flesh in its unclean desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.[g]
Brazen and arrogant, these people do not tremble while slandering glorious beings;
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.