Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

71 In thee, Jehovah, do I trust: let me never be ashamed.

² Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me; incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

³ Be to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

⁴ My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

⁵ For thou art my hope, O Lord Jehovah, my confidence from my youth.

⁶ On thee have I been stayed from the womb; from the bowels of my mother thou didst draw me forth: my praise shall be continually of thee.

6 Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a signal in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north, and a great destruction.

² The comely and delicate one do I cut off, the daughter of Zion.

³ Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

⁴ Prepare war against her. Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day hath declined, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening.

⁵ Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

⁶ For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said: Hew ye down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem. She is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

⁷ As a well poureth forth her waters, so she poureth forth her wickedness: violence and destruction are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

⁸ Be thou instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from thee; lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: They shall thoroughly glean like a vine the remnant of Israel: turn back thy hand, as a grape-gatherer unto the baskets.

¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

¹¹ And I am full of the fury of Jehovah, I am weary with holding in. Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken; the aged with him [that is] full of days.

¹² And their houses shall be turned unto others, [their] fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah.

¹³ For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely.

¹⁴ And they have healed the breach of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace! when there is no peace.

¹⁵ Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, neither know they what it is to blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].

¹⁷ Also I have set watchmen over you:—Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

¹⁸ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O assembly, what is among them.

¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts; for they have not hearkened unto my words, and as to my law, they have rejected it.

³ For consider well him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds.

⁴ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin.

⁵ And ye have quite forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, despise not [the] chastening of [the] Lord, nor faint [when] reproved by him;

⁶ for whom [the] Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.

⁷ Ye endure for chastening, God conducts himself towards you as towards sons; for who is the son that the father chastens not?

⁸ But if ye are without chastening, of which all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

⁹ Moreover we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced [them]; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?

¹⁰ For they indeed chastened for a few days, as seemed good to them; but he for profit, in order to the partaking of his holiness.

¹¹ But no chastening at the time seems to be [matter] of joy, but of grief; but afterwards yields [the] peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it.

¹² Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the failing knees;

¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned aside; but that rather it may be healed.

¹⁴ Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ watching lest [there be] any one who lacks the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and many be defiled by it;

¹⁶ lest [there be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright;

¹⁷ for ye know that also afterwards, desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, (for he found no place for repentance) although he sought it earnestly with tears.