Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ Sacrifices and offerings are not what You want,
    but You’ve opened my ears,^[a] and now I understand.
Burnt offerings and sin offerings
    are not what please You.
⁷ So I said, “See, I have come to do Your will,
    as it is inscribed of me in the scroll.
⁸ I am pleased to live how You want, my God.
    Your law is etched into my heart and my soul.”

⁹ I have encouraged Your people with the message of righteousness,
    in Your great assembly (look and see),
I haven’t kept quiet about these things;
    You know this, Eternal One.
¹⁰ I have not kept Your righteousness to myself, sealed up in the secret places of my heart;
    instead, I boldly tell others how You save and how loyal You are.
I haven’t been shy to talk about Your love, nor have I been afraid to tell Your truth
    before the great assembly of Your people.

¹¹ Please, Eternal One, don’t hold back
    Your kind ways from me.
I need Your strong love and truth
    to stand watch over me and keep me from harm.
¹² Right now I can’t see because I am surrounded by troubles;
    my sins and shortcomings have caught up to me,
    so I am swimming in darkness.
Like the hairs on my head, there are too many to count,
    so my heart deserts me.

¹³ O Eternal One, please rescue me.
    O Eternal One, hurry; I need Your help.
¹⁴ May those who are trying to destroy me
    be humiliated and ashamed instead;
May those who want to ruin my reputation
    be cut off and embarrassed.
¹⁵ May those who try to catch me off guard,
    those who look at me and say, “Aha, we’ve trapped you,”
    be caught in their own shame instead.

¹⁶ But may all who look for You
    discover true joy and happiness in You;
May those who cherish how You save them
    always say, “O Eternal One, You are great and are first in our hearts.”
¹⁷ Meanwhile, I am empty and need so much,
    but I know the Lord is thinking of me.
You are my help; only You can save me, my True God.
    Please hurry.

¹²     Listen to Me, O Jacob, Israel whom I’ve specially named,
        specially chosen, and not without purpose.
    I Am the first of all things, and I will be the last.
¹³     It is by My power, My desire, My doing that the earth was anchored.
        My hand flung the skies. I established them,
    And when I call, they pay the strictest attention.

¹⁴ Come and listen, all of you! Did any of you tell in advance
    that the Eternal’s beloved would press diligently
Against Babylon’s might and overcome Chaldea as He desired?

¹⁵ Eternal One: No, only I, I the Eternal One knew this would happen.
        I was the one who summoned him, who led him,
    Who determined that he would have such victory.
¹⁶     Come even closer, and hear: from the beginning I spoke,
        not hiding away in hushed secret. I Am and will be;
    I was before anything was at all.

    The Lord, the Eternal, has sent me and His Spirit.
¹⁷         The Eternal One, who rescued you, the Holy One of Israel declares,

Eternal One: I am the Eternal One your God. I have given you My instruction
        for living well and right, leading you in how you should be and do.
¹⁸     If only you had listened to My instruction,
        then you would have been flooded with peace;
    Your righteousness would have risen and crested like waves on the sea.
¹⁹     Your people would have multiplied to become like the grains of sand,
        and your children would be like grains of wheat.
    And they would be forever in My mind and My presence.

²⁰ Leave Babylon; run swiftly from Chaldea! And let it be known
    with a joyous shout, to the ends of the earth,
That the Eternal One has rescued Jacob, His servant!
²¹ And though He guided them through desert places, with no water in sight,
    they were never thirsty.
Just as in Moses’ time, God made the rocks gush water,
    split the rock and made water pour streaming out.