Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to Ahimelech’s house.”
52 Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man?
God’s loving kindness endures continually.
2 Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good,
lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah.
4 You love all devouring words,
you deceitful tongue.
5 God will likewise destroy you forever.
He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent,
and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 The righteous also will see it, and fear,
and laugh at him, saying,
7 “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
8 But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house.
I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.
9 I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it.
I will hope in your name, for it is good,
in the presence of your saints.
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the chief of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel come!
2 Go to Calneh, and see.
From there go to Hamath the great.
Then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are they better than these kingdoms?
Is their border greater than your border?
3 Alas for you who put far away the evil day,
and cause the seat of violence to come near,
4 who lie on beds of ivory,
and stretch themselves on their couches,
and eat the lambs out of the flock,
and the calves out of the middle of the stall,
5 who strum on the strings of a harp,
who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6 who drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the best oils,
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive.
The feasting and lounging will end.
8 “The Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself,” says Yahweh, the God of Armies:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
and detest his fortresses.
Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
9 It will happen that if ten men remain in one house,
they will die.
10 “When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’
11 “For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces,
and the little house into bits.
12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
Does one plow there with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison,
and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,
13 you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say,
‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’
14 For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,”
says Yahweh, the God of Armies;
“and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”
4 When a great multitude came together and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable: 5 “The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6 Other seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 Other fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Other fell into the good ground and grew and produced one hundred times as much fruit.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
9 Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?”
10 He said, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’(A)
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