Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim, {lilies} A testimony of Asaph: A Psalm.

¹ ¶ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth.

² In the presence of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us.

³ Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

⁴ O LORD God of the hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

⁵ Thou dost feed them with the bread of tears and give them tears to drink in great measure.

⁶ Thou dost make us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.

⁷ Turn us again, O God of the hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

¹⁷ Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou didst make strong for thyself,

¹⁸ so we will not go back from thee. Thou shalt quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

¹⁹ Turn us again, O LORD God of the hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

2 ¶ Woe unto those that devise iniquity and fabricate evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they put it into effect because they have power in their hands.

² And they coveted fields and stole them, and houses and took them away; so they oppressed the man and his house, even the man and his heritage.

³ Therefore thus hath the LORD said; Behold, I devise an evil against this family, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye walk haughtily; for the time shall be evil.

⁴ In that time shall one take up a saying against you and lament with a doleful lamentation and say, We have been utterly destroyed; he has changed the portion of my people; how has he taken our fields! He has given and divided our fields unto others.

⁵ Therefore thou shalt have no one to cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.

⁶ ¶ Do not prophesy, they say to those that prophesy: Do not prophesy unto them that they are to understand shame.

⁷ O thou that calls thyself the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD shortened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?

⁸ He who yesterday was my people is risen up as an enemy; ye pull off the robe with the garment from those that pass by as those who return from war.

⁹ Ye have cast the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their children ye have taken away my continual praise.

¹⁰ Arise and depart, for this is not your rest because it is polluted; it has become corrupted and with a great corruption.

¹¹ If there is one walking in the spirit of falsehood, he shall lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

¹² ¶ I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah as the flock in the midst of their fold; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

¹³ The breaker shall go up before them; they shall break through and pass through the gate and go out by it; and their king shall pass before them, the LORD at the head of them.

¹⁵ Therefore, when ye see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, which shall stand in the holy place (whosoever reads, let him understand),

¹⁶ then let those who are in Judaea flee into the mountains;

¹⁷ let him who is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house,

¹⁸ neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes.

¹⁹ And woe unto those that are with child and to those that give suck in those days!

²⁰ But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the sabbath day,

²¹ for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

²² And if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Behold, here is the Christ, or there, believe it not.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in such a manner that they shall deceive, if possible, the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

²⁶ Therefore if they say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not.

²⁷ For as the lightning that comes out of the east and shines even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸ For wherever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,

³⁰ and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.

³¹ And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.