Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

58 Do you really speak what is right when silent?^[b]
Do you judge fairly the children of humankind?^[c]
2 No, in your heart you plan injustices;
in the land^[d] you weigh out the violence of your hands.
³ The wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray from the belly, speaking lies.
⁴ Their venom is like snake venom;
They are like a deaf viper that closes its ear
⁵ so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or the skilled caster of spells.
⁶ O God, break their teeth in their mouth.
Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.
⁷ Let them run away like water that runs off.
When he bends the bow, let his arrows be as though they were cut off.^[e]
8 Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes;
like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.
⁹ Before your pots can feel the heat of a thornbush,
whether green or dry,^[f] he will sweep it away.^[g]
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹¹ And people^[h] will say, “Surely there is a reward^[i] for the righteous.
Surely there is a God who judges in the land.”^[j]

²³ “How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself,
    I have not gone after the Baals?’
Look at your way in the valley,
    know what you have done.
You are a young she-camel,
    interweaving her ways.
²⁴ A wild ass accustomed to the desert,^[a]
    in the desire of her soul.
She gasps for wind in her rutting time.
    Who can quell^[b] her lust?
All those who seek her will not grow weary,
    in her month they will find her.
²⁵ Restrain your foot from being barefoot,
    and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless.
    No! For I have loved strangers,
    and after them I will go.’^[c]
26 As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act,
    so the house of Israel will be ashamed.
They, their kings, their officials,
    and their priests, and their prophets.
²⁷ Those who say to the tree, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
For they have turned their backs^[d] to me, and not their faces.
    But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us.’
²⁸ But where are your gods that you made for yourself?
    Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble.
For according to the number of your towns
    are your gods, O Judah.
²⁹ Why do you complain to me?
    All of you have rebelled against me,”^[e] declares^[f] Yahweh.
³⁰ “For in vain^[g] I have struck your children.
    They accepted no discipline.
Your sword devoured your prophets,
    like a ravening^[h] lion.
³¹ O generation, you see the word of Yahweh.
    Have I been a desert^[i] to Israel? Or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We roam about freely,
    we will not come again to you’?
³² Can a young woman forget her ornaments?^[j] Or a bride her sashes?
    Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
³³ How well you do on your way to seek love!
    Therefore^[k] even to the wicked woman you can teach your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
    the blood of the life of the innocent, the poor.
You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house.
    But in spite of all these things,
³⁵ yet you say, ‘But I am innocent,
    surely his anger has turned away from me.’
Look, I am entering into judgment with you
    because of your saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ How you go about so much changing your way!
    Also by Egypt you will be put to shame,
    just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ Also from there you will come out
    with your hands on your head,
for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust,^[l]
    and you will not prosper through them.