Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Lament After a Defeat and a Prayer for Restoration
For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth.[a]
A miktam of David. To teach.
When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons.[b]
60 O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us.
You have been angry. Restore us!
2 You have made the land quake. You have split it open.
Heal its fissures, because it totters.
3 You have shown your people hard things;
You have given us wine that staggers.
4 You have rallied those who fear you round a banner
out of bowshot,[c] Selah
5 so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer us.
6 God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will rejoice;
I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the helmet for[d] my head;
Judah is my scepter.[e]
8 Moab is my washing pot;
over Edom, I will cast my sandal.
On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have not you yourself rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
11 Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of humankind is futile.
12 Through God we will do valiantly,[f]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.
Yahweh’s Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
13 When Ephraim spoke,[a] there was terror;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2 And now they sin again,
and they make for themselves a molten idol,
idols from their silver metal according to their understanding,
all of them the work of skilled craftsmen.
To these they say, “Sacrifice!”
People are kissing bull calves.
3 Therefore, they will be like the morning cloud,
and like the dew of early morning going away,
like chaff swirling from the threshing floor,
or like smoke from a window.
4 I am Yahweh your God
since[b] the land of Egypt;
you know no god except me,
and no one saves besides me.
5 I fed you[c] in the desert,
in the land of drought.
6 When I fed them,[d] they were satisfied;
they were satisfied and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
7 And I will be like a lion to them;
I lie in wait beside the way, like a leopard.
8 I will attack them like a bear robbed of her offspring,
and I will tear open the covering of their heart;
there I will devour them like a lion,
like an animal of the field would mutilate them.
9 I will destroy you,[e] O Israel;
who will help you?[f]
10 Where now is your king that he may save you?
Where in all your cities are your judges,
of whom you said, “Give to
me a king and rulers?”
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him in my wrath.
12 The sin of Ephraim is wrapped up;
his sin is concealed.
13 The labor pains of childbirth come for him;
he is an unwise son
because at the proper time, he does not present himself
at the mouth of the womb.[g]
14 Should I redeem them from the power[h] of Sheol? [i]
Should I deliver them from death?
Where are your plagues, O Death?
Where is your destruction, O Sheol?[j]
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15 Although he may flourish among reeds,[k]
the east wind will come, a wind of Yahweh
rising from the desert;
his fountain will dry up,
his spring will be parched.
It will plunder his treasury,[l]
every object of desire.
16 [m] Samaria will be guilty,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they will fall by the sword,
their children will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.
Further Advice for the Christian Life
2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving, 3 praying at the same time for us also, that God may open for us a door of the message, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which also I am a prisoner[a], 4 so that I may reveal[b] it, as it is necessary for me to speak. 5 Live with wisdom toward those outside, making the most of the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how it is necessary for you to answer each one.
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