Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Intercession for Restoration of Zion
Psalm 74
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Why have You cast us off forever, O God?
Why does Your anger smolder against the flock of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased of old,
redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance,
and Mount Zion, where You dwelt.
3 Lift Your steps toward the perpetual ruins—
an enemy has done all evil to the Sanctuary!
4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place.
They have set up their standards as signs.
5 It seemed like bringing up axes
into a thicket of trees—
6 and now all its carved work
they smash with hatchet and hammers!
7 They set Your Sanctuary on fire,
burning it to the ground.
They defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
8 They said in their hearts: “Let us crush them totally!”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs.
No longer is there any prophet—
and no one among us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary mock?
Will the enemy revile Your Name forever?
11 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them!
12 Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the land.
13 You split the sea with Your power.
You smashed the monsters’ heads in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan,
giving him as food to the desert dwellers.
15 You opened up spring and brook.
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours.
You provided moon and sun.
17 You set all the borders of earth.
You made summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy mocked, Adonai,
and how foolish people despised Your Name.
19 Do not deliver Your turtledove’s soul to the wild beast.
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted ones forever.
20 Look upon the covenant—for haunts of violence
fill the dark places of earth.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame.
But let the poor and needy praise Your Name.
22 Rise up O God, and defend Your cause.
Remember how the fool mocks You all day.
23 Do not forget the noise of Your foes,
the uproar of those rising up against You,
ascending continually.
Leviathan the Dragon
27 In that day Adonai will punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent
with His fierce, great, strong sword,
Leviathan the twisted serpent!
He will slay the dragon in the sea.
Second Song of the Vineyard
2 “In that day sing to her,
‘A vineyard of delight!’
3 I, Adonai, watch over it,
I water it every moment.
I guard it day and night,
so that no one may harm it.
4 It is not that I have wrath.
Who would give me thorns and thistles?
Into battle I would march against them!
I would burn them up altogether!
5 Rather let them rely on My strength.
Let them make peace with Me—
make peace with Me.”
Israel Will Blossom Again
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Did He strike Israel
as He struck those who struck them?
Or were they slain
as their slayers were slain?
8 You contended with her by banishing her,
by driving her away.
With His fierce wind He expelled them
on the day of the east wind.
9 So by this will Jacob’s sin be atoned
and this the full price to remove his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
like shattered chalk stones,
so that the Asherah poles and incense
rise no more.
10 The fortified city is a lonely habitation,
forlorn and forsaken like the desert.
There the calf will graze,
there lie down
and consume its branches.
11 When the boughs are withered,
they will be broken off.
Women come and set them on fire,
for it is a people of no understanding.
Therefore their Maker will show them no mercy—
He who formed them will give them no grace.
12 It will come about in that day,
Adonai will thresh from the channel of the River to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you will be gathered one by one, Bnei-Yisrael.
13 It will also come about in that day, a great shofar will be blown.[a] Those perishing in the land of Assyria and the exiles in the land of Egypt will come and worship Adonai on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Confrontation at the Temple
45 Then Yeshua entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants, 46 saying to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’[a]
but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”[b]
47 And He was teaching every day in the Temple. The ruling kohanim and the Torah scholars, even the leaders of the people, were trying to destroy Him; 48 but they could not find any way to do it, because all the people were hanging on His words.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.