Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ Your foes have ^(K)roared in the midst of your meeting place;
    ^(L)they set up their ^(M)own signs for ^(N)signs.
⁵ They were like those who swing ^(O)axes
    in a forest of trees.^[b]
6 And all its ^(P)carved wood
    they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They ^(Q)set your sanctuary on fire;
    they ^(R)profaned ^(S)the dwelling place of your name,
    bringing it down to the ground.
⁸ They ^(T)said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;
    they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see our ^(U)signs;
    ^(V)there is no longer any prophet,
    and there is none among us who knows how long.
¹⁰ How long, O God, ^(W)is the foe to scoff?
    Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why ^(X)do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
    Take it from the fold of your garment^[c] and destroy them!

¹² Yet ^(Y)God my King is from of old,
    working salvation in the midst of the earth.
¹³ You ^(Z)divided the sea by your might;
    you ^(AA)broke the heads of ^(AB)the sea monsters^[d] on the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of ^(AC)Leviathan;
    you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
¹⁵ You ^(AD)split open springs and brooks;
    you ^(AE)dried up ever-flowing streams.
¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established ^(AF)the heavenly lights and the sun.
¹⁷ You have ^(AG)fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
    you have made ^(AH)summer and winter.

^18 (AI)Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
    and ^(AJ)a foolish people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your ^(AK)dove to the wild beasts;
    ^(AL)do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰ Have regard for ^(AM)the covenant,
    for ^(AN)the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
²¹ Let not ^(AO)the downtrodden ^(AP)turn back in shame;
    let ^(AQ)the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, O God, ^(AR)defend your cause;
    ^(AS)remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
    ^(AT)the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

² In that day,
^(E)“A pleasant vineyard,^{[a] (F)}sing of it!
³     I, the Lord, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
    Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
⁴     I have no wrath.
^(G)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
    I would march against them,
    I would burn them up together.
⁵ Or let them lay hold of my protection,
    let them make peace with me,
    let them make peace with me.”

^6 (H)In days to come^[b] Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.

^7 (I)Has he struck them ^(J)as he struck those who struck them?
    Or have they been slain ^(K)as their slayers were slain?
^8 (L)Measure by measure,^[c] by exile you contended with them;
    ^(M)he removed them with his fierce breath^[d] in the day of the east wind.
⁹ Therefore by this ^(N)the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:^[e]
(O)when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
    no ^(P)Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
^10 (Q)For the fortified city is solitary,
    a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
    there it lies down and strips its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
    women come and make a fire of them.
^(R)For this is a people without discernment;
    therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
    he who formed them will show them no favor.