Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 85
For the music leader. Of the Korahites. A psalm.
85 Lord, you’ve been kind to your land;
you’ve changed Jacob’s circumstances for the better.
2 You’ve forgiven your people’s wrongdoing;
you’ve covered all their sins. Selah
3 You’ve stopped being furious;
you’ve turned away from your burning anger.
4 You, the God who can save us, restore us!
Stop being angry with us!
5 Will you be mad at us forever?
Will you prolong your anger from one generation to the next?
6 Won’t you bring us back to life again
so that your people can rejoice in you?
7 Show us your faithful love, Lord!
Give us your salvation!
8 Let me hear what the Lord God says,
because he speaks peace to his people and to his faithful ones.
Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
9 God’s salvation is very close to those who honor him
so that his glory can live in our land.
10 Faithful love and truth have met;
righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth springs up from the ground;
righteousness gazes down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord gives what is good,
and our land yields its produce.
13 Righteousness walks before God,
making a road for his steps.
Israel’s sins and coming punishment
4 Hear the Lord’s word,
people of Israel;
for the Lord has a dispute
with the inhabitants of the land.
There’s no faithful love or loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
2 Swearing, lying, murder,
together with stealing and adultery are common;
bloody crime followed by bloody crime.
3 Therefore, the earth itself becomes sick,
and all who live on it grow weak;
together with the wild animals
and the birds in the sky,
even the fish of the sea are dying.
4 Yet let no one protest,
and let no one complain.
Listen, priest, I am angry with your people.[a]
5 You will stumble by day;
and at nighttime so will your prophet,
and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed
from lack of knowledge.
Since you have rejected knowledge,
so I will reject you from serving me as a priest.
Since you have forgotten the Instruction of your God,
so also I will forget your children.
7 The more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glory for shame.
8 They feed on the sin of my people;
they set their hearts on evil things.
9 The priest will be just like the people;
I will punish them for their ways,
and judge them for their deeds.
10 They will eat but not be satisfied;
they will have sex like prostitutes,
but they will not have children,
because they have rejected the Lord
to devote themselves to 11 false religious practices.
Description of Israel’s idolatry
Wine and new wine
destroy understanding.
12 My people take advice from a piece of wood,
and their divining rod gives them predictions.
A spirit of prostitution has led them astray;
they have left God to follow other gods.
13 They offer sacrifices on mountaintops,
and make entirely burned offerings on hills;
they offer sacrifices under various green trees,
because their shade is pleasant.
Therefore, your daughters act like prostitutes,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters because they act like prostitutes,
nor your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery;
for the men themselves visit prostitutes,
and offer sacrifices with consecrated workers at temples;
so now the people without sense must come to ruin.
15 Israel, even though you act like a prostitute,
don’t let Judah become guilty.
Don’t enter into Gilgal,
or go up to Beth-aven,
and don’t swear, “As the Lord lives.”
16 Like a stubborn cow Israel is stubborn.
Now the Lord will tend them,[b]
as the Lord tends a lamb in a pasture.
17 Ephraim is associated with idols—
let him alone!
18 Though they have stopped drinking,
they continue to behave like prostitutes;
indeed, they “love”; shame is their pride.
19 The wind has wrapped her in its wings;
they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
A replacement for Judas
15 During this time, the family of believers was a company of about one hundred twenty persons. Peter stood among them and said, 16 “Brothers and sisters, the scripture that the Holy Spirit announced beforehand through David had to be fulfilled. This was the scripture concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 This happened even though he was one of us and received a share of this ministry.” (18 In fact, he bought a field with the payment he received for his injustice. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines spilled out. 19 This became known to everyone living in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Hakeldama, or “Field of Blood.”) 20 “It is written in the Psalms scroll,
Let his home become deserted and let there be no one living in it;[a]
and
Give his position of leadership to another.[b]
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible