Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?
    Why^[c] does your anger blaze forth
    against the sheep of your pasture?
² Remember the people that you purchased long ago,
    the tribe that you redeemed as your own possession,^[d]
    and Mount Zion that you chose as your dwelling.
³ Direct now your steps^[e] to the endless ruins,
    toward the sanctuary destroyed by the enemy.
⁴ Your foes exulted triumphantly in the place of your assembly
    and set up their memorial emblems.
⁵ They set upon it with their axes
    as if it were a thicket of trees.
⁶ And then, with hatchets and hammers,
    they bludgeoned all the carved work.
⁷ They set your sanctuary ablaze;
    they razed and defiled the dwelling place of your name.^[f]
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly crush them,”
    and they burned every shrine of God in the land.^[g]
9 Now we see no signs,
    there are no longer any prophets,
    and none of us knows how long this will last.^[h]
10 How long, O God, will the foe mock you?
    Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?^[i]
11 Why do you hold back your right hand?
    Take it out from your robe and destroy them.^[j]
12 Yet you, O God, are my King from of old,
    working deeds of salvation throughout the earth.
^13 [k]By your power you split the sea in two
    and shattered the heads of the dragons in the waters.
¹⁴ You crushed the heads of Leviathan
    and gave him as food for the wild beasts.
¹⁵ You opened up springs and torrents
    and turned flowing rivers into dry land.^[l]
16 [m]Yours is the day, and yours also is the night,
    for you set in place both sun and moon.
¹⁷ You fixed all the boundaries of the earth
    and created both summer and winter.
^18 [n]Remember, O Lord, how the enemy has mocked you,
    how a foolish people has blasphemed your name.
¹⁹ Do not surrender the soul of your dove^[o] to wild beasts;
    do not forget forever the life of your poor.
²⁰ Have regard for your covenant!
    For the land is filled with darkness,
    and the pastures are haunts of violence.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame;
    let the poor and needy^[p] bless your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
    remember how fools mock you all day long.
²³ Do not ignore the outbursts of your enemies,
    the unceasing tumult of your foes.

¹ On that day,
    the Lord will use his sword
    that is cruel and great and strong
to punish Leviathan^[a] the fleeing serpent,
    Leviathan the writhing serpent,
and he will slay that dragon
    that resides in the sea.
^2 [b]On that day,
    sing of the pleasant vineyard.
³ I, the Lord, am its keeper,
    and I water it frequently
lest any harm come to it;
    I guard it night and day.
⁴ I do not quickly succumb to anger,
    but if I were to find briars and thorns,
I would march against them in battle
    and consume them in fire.
⁵ However, if they decide to ask for my protection,
    let them make their peace with me;
    otherwise I cannot protect them.
⁶ In days to come,
    Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom,
    and the entire world will be covered with fruit.
⁷ Has the Lord struck them down
    as he struck down those who struck him?
Has he slaughtered them
    as their attackers were slaughtered?
⁸ By expelling and exiling them
    he has taken action against them,
removing them with a breath
    as fierce as the east wind.
⁹ In this way will the guilt of Jacob be expiated
    and the full fruit of renouncing his sin will occur,
when he crushes all the altar stones to pieces
    like lumps of chalk,
    and no sacred poles and incense altars
    will remain standing.
¹⁰ For the fortified city will be abandoned,
    a deserted pasture, a forsaken wilderness;
the calves will graze and lie down there,
    destroying its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs grow dry and snap off,
    women will come and use them for firewood.
For this is a people that lacks understanding;
    therefore their Maker will not have compassion for them;
    he who formed them will not show mercy toward them.
¹² On that day,
    the Lord will thresh the grain
from the streams of the Euphrates
    to the Wadi of Egypt,
and you will be gathered one by one,
    O people of Egypt.
¹³ On that day,
    a great trumpet will be sounded,
and those who were lost in the land of Assyria
    and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt
will come to worship the Lord
    on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’
    but you have made it a den of thieves.”