Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

78 A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.

² They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.

³ They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.

⁴ We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

⁵ How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?

⁶ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

⁷ Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.

⁸ Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.

⁹ Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name's sake:

¹⁰ Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:

¹¹ Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.

¹² And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

¹³ But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.

²⁵ Josue therefore on that day made a covenant, and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem.

²⁶ And he wrote all these things in the volume of the law of the Lord: and he took a great stone, and set it under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁷ And he said to all the people: Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it, and lie to the Lord your God.

²⁸ And he sent the people away every one to their own possession.

²⁹ And after these things Josue the son of Null the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old:

³⁰ And they buried him in the border of his possession in Thamnathsare, which is situate in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas.

³¹ And Israel served the Lord all the days of Josue, and of the ancients that lived a long time after Josue, and that had known all the works of the Lord which he had done in Israel.

³² And the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel had taken out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in that part of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons of Hemor the father of Sichem, for a hundred young ewes, and it was in the possession of the sons of Joseph.

³³ Eleazar also the son of Aaron died: and they buried him in Gabaath that belongeth to Phinees his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.

²⁰ Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect.

²¹ In the law it is written: In other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; and neither so will they hear me, saith the Lord.

²² Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers; but prophecies not to unbelievers, but to believers.

²³ If therefore the whole church come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in unlearned persons or infidels, will they not say that you are mad?

²⁴ But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or an unlearned person, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all.

²⁵ The secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will adore God, affirming that God is among you indeed.