Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Psalm by Asaph.
79 God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
They have defiled your holy temple.
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
3 They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem.
There was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
5 How long, Yahweh?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
7 for they have devoured Jacob,
and destroyed his homeland.
8 Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
9 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will praise you forever, to all generations.
6 “In that day,” says Yahweh,
“I will assemble that which is lame,
and I will gather that which is driven away,
and that which I have afflicted;
7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant,
and that which was cast far off a strong nation:
and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.”
8 You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you it will come.
Yes, the former dominion will come,
the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 Now why do you cry out aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?
10 Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion,
like a woman in travail;
for now you will go out of the city,
and will dwell in the field,
and will come even to Babylon.
There you will be rescued.
There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 Now many nations have assembled against you, that say,
“Let her be defiled,
and let our eye gloat over Zion.”
12 But they don’t know the thoughts of Yahweh,
neither do they understand his counsel;
for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze.
You will beat in pieces many peoples.
I will devote their gain to Yahweh,
and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.
18 After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory. 2 He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird! 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, 5 for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double. 7 However much she glorified herself and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’ 8 Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire, for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.
9 The kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning, 10 standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’
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