Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer to God the Rock of Refuge
71 In you, O Yahweh, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be for me a rock of refuge to resort to always;
you have ordained[a] to save me,
because you are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp[b] of the evildoer and the oppressor,
5 because you are my hope,
O Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from birth.[c]
It was you who took[d] me from the womb of my mother.
My praise is of you continually.
6 Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,
from the midst of Jerusalem.
And in Tekoa blow a horn,
and on Beth-haccherem lift up a signal,
for evil looks down from the north,
and a great destruction.
2 The lovely and the delicate,
the daughter of Jerusalem, I will destroy.
3 Shepherds and their flocks will come against her,
they will pitch their tents against her all around,
they will pasture, each his portion.[a]
4 Sanctify[b] war against her.
Arise, and let us attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day turns,
for the shadows of evening are lengthened.
5 Arise, and let us attack by night,
and let us destroy her citadel fortresses.”
6 For thus says Yahweh of hosts,
“Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished,
its oppression is in its midst.
7 As a water well keeps its water cool,
so she keeps cool her wickedness.
Violence and destruction are heard within her,
sickness and wounds[c] are continually before me.[d]
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
lest I turn away from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
a land that is not inhabited.”
9 Thus says Yahweh of hosts:
“They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine,
turn back your hand over the branches like a grape-gatherer.
10 To whom shall I speak and admonish,
that they may hear?
Look, their ears are closed,[e]
and they are not able to listen attentively.
Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn,
they do not delight in it.
11 But I am full with the wrath of Yahweh,
I struggle to hold it[f] in.
Pour it out on the children[g] in the street,
and on the assemblies[h] of young men at the same time.
For even husband with wife will get trapped,
the old with him who is full of days.
12 And their houses will be turned over to others,
their fields and their wives together.
For I will stretch out my hand
against the inhabitants of the land,” declares[i] Yahweh.
13 “For from the smallest of them to the greatest of them,
everyone[j] makes profit for unlawful gain.
And from the prophet to the priest,
everyone[k] practices deceit.
14 And they have treated the wound of my people lightly,
saying,[l] ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.
15 Have they acted ashamed, for they have committed a detestable thing?
Not at all, nor were they ashamed; they did not know to feel humiliated.
Therefore[m] they will fall among those who fall at the time I punish them,
they will stumble,” says Yahweh.
16 Thus says Yahweh: “Stand at the roads and look,
and ask for the ancient paths, where the way of the good is,
and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves.[n]
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’[o]
17 And I raised up watchmen over you:
‘Listen attentively to the sound of a horn.’
But they said, ‘We will not listen attentively.’
18 Therefore[p] hear, O nations, and know, O community,
what will happen to them.[q]
19 Hear, O earth,
look, I am about to bring disaster to this people,
the fruit of their plans,
because they have not listened attentively to my words,
and my teaching, they have rejected it also.
3 For consider the one who endured such hostility by sinners against himself,[a] so that you will not grow weary in your souls and give up. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your[b] blood as you[c] struggle against sin. 5 And have you completely forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons?
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
or give up when you are corrected by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves,
and punishes every son whom he accepts.”[d]
7 Endure it for discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, in which all legitimate sons[e] have become participants, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had our earthly fathers[f] who disciplined us, and we respected them. Will we not much rather subject ourselves to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a few days according to what seemed appropriate to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we can have a share in his holiness. 11 Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.
A Serious Warning Against Refusing God
12 Therefore strengthen your slackened hands and your weakened knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 15 Take care that no one falls short of the grace of God; that no one growing up like a root of bitterness causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one be a sexually immoral or totally worldly person like Esau, who for one meal traded his own birthright. 17 For you know that also afterwards, when he[g] wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, because he did not find an occasion for repentance, although he sought it with tears.
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