Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 142
A maskil[a] of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer.
142 I cry out loud for help from the Lord.
I beg out loud for mercy from the Lord.
2 I pour out my concerns before God;
I announce my distress to him.
3 When my spirit is weak inside me, you still know my way.
But they’ve hidden a trap for me in the path I’m taking.
4 Look right beside me: See?
No one pays attention to me.
There’s no escape for me.
No one cares about my life.
5 I cry to you, Lord, for help.
“You are my refuge,” I say.
“You are all I have in the land of the living.”
6 Pay close attention to my shouting,
because I’ve been brought down so low!
Deliver me from my oppressors
because they’re stronger than me.
7 Get me out of this prison
so I can give thanks to your name.
Then the righteous will gather all around me
because of your good deeds to me.
15 The day of the Lord is near
against all the nations.
As you have done, so it will be done to you;
your actions will make you suffer!
16 Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so will all the nations around you drink;
they will drink and swallow quickly,
and they will be like they’ve never been before.
Edom’s punishers
17 But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape,
and it will be holy;
and the house of Jacob will drive out those who drove them out.
18 The house of Jacob will be a fire,
the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau straw;
they will burn them up completely,
and there will be no one left of the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
19 Those of the arid southern plain will possess Mount Esau,
and those of the western foothills, the land of the Philistines;
they will possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 Those who remain of the Israelites
will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath;
and those left from Jerusalem and who are now living in Sepharad
will possess the cities of the arid southern plain.
21 The deliverers will go up to Mount Zion
to rule Mount Esau,
and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
Why Jesus speaks in parables
10 Jesus’ disciples came and said to him, “Why do you use parables when you speak to the crowds?”
11 Jesus replied, “Because they haven’t received the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but you have. 12 For those who have will receive more and they will have more than enough. But as for those who don’t have, even the little they have will be taken away from them. 13 This is why I speak to the crowds in parables: although they see, they don’t really see; and although they hear, they don’t really hear or understand. 14 What Isaiah prophesied has become completely true for them:
You will hear, to be sure, but never understand;
and you will certainly see but never recognize what you are seeing.
15 For this people’s senses have become calloused,
and they’ve become hard of hearing,
and they’ve shut their eyes
so that they won’t see with their eyes
or hear with their ears
or understand with their minds,
and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them.[a]
16 “Happy are your eyes because they see. Happy are your ears because they hear. 17 I assure you that many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they didn’t.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible