Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³ Why do you boast of your evil deeds,
    you champion of malice?^[c]
All day long ⁴ you plot harm;
    your tongue is like a sharpened razor,
    you master of deceit.
^5 [d]You love evil rather than good,
    and lies rather than truthful speech. Selah
⁶ You wallow in destructive talk,
    you tongue of deceit.
^7 [e]This is the reason why God will crush you
    and destroy you once and for all.
He will snatch you from your tent^[f]
    and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
⁸ The righteous will see and be afraid;
    they will mock him:
⁹ “This is the man
    who refused to accept God as his refuge.
Rather, he placed his trust in his abundant riches
    and gathered strength by his crimes.”
^10 [g]But I am like a green olive tree^[h]
    in the house of God.
I place my trust forever and ever
    in the kindness of God.
¹¹ I will praise you forever
    for what you have done,^[i]
and in the presence of the saints
    I will proclaim the goodness of your name.

¹ Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
    and for those who feel secure on the mount of Samaria,
the leaders of the most important of the nations
    to whom the people of Israel have recourse.
² Cross over to Calneh^[a] and see;
    travel on from there to Hamath the great,
    and then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
    Is your territory greater than theirs?
³ You put aside all thoughts of the evil day
    and thereby hasten the reign of violence.
⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory
    and lounge on their couches.
They feast on lambs from the flock
    and stall-fattened calves.
⁵ They improvise on the music of the harp,
    and, like David, they invent musical instruments.
⁶ They drink wine by the bowlful
    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
    but they feel no grief over the ruin of Joseph.
⁷ Therefore, they will now be the first to go into exile,
    and their wanton revelry will come to an end.

⁸ The Lord God has sworn by himself.
    Thus say I, the Lord, the God of hosts:
I abhor the pride of Jacob
    and hate his palaces,
I shall deliver up the city
    and all that is in it.
⁹ If ten men are left in a single house,
    they will die.
¹⁰ Only a few will be left
    to carry out the dead from the house.
If someone calls to a man inside the house,
    “Are there any more there?”
    and he answers, “No,”
then he will say, “Hush,”
    for the name of the Lord must not be mentioned.
¹¹ At the Lord’s command,
    the great house will be shattered to bits,
    and the small houses will be reduced to rubble.
¹² Can horses gallop over rocks?
    Can one plow the sea with oxen?
Yet you have turned justice into poison
    and the fruit of justice into venom—
¹³ you who rejoice in Lodebar,^[b]
    who say, “Have we not, by our own strength,
    seized Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴ Beware, O house of Israel,
    for I am raising up against you a nation,
    says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and that nation shall oppress you
    from Lebo of Hamath even to the Wadi Arabah.

‘looking they may not see,
    and hearing they may not understand.’