Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David.
² Do you really speak of justice, O “gods”?
Do you judge with fairness, sons of man?
³ No, in heart you devise injustice.
Your hands weigh out violence on earth.
⁴ The wicked are strangers from the womb.
Speaking lies, they go astray from birth.
⁵ Their venom is like a serpent’s venom,
like a deaf cobra shutting its ear—
⁶ not hearing the voice of charmers,
    or a cunning spell binder.
⁷ O God, break their teeth in their mouths.
Tear out the fangs of young lions, Adonai.
⁸ Let them flow away like water that runs off.
When he bends his bow, let the arrows be cut off.
⁹ Like a slug melting away as it slithers,
like a woman’s miscarriage,
may they never see the sun.
¹⁰ Even before your pots can feel a thorn
—whether alive or ablaze—
He will sweep the wicked away.
¹¹ The righteous one will rejoice
when he beholds vengeance,
when he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹² Then men will say:
“There really is a reward for the righteous.
There really is a God who judges on earth!”

²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled—
        I have not gone after the Baalim^[a]?
    Look at your behavior in the Valley!
        Recognize what you have done.
    You are a swift young camel
        galloping aimlessly,
²⁴ a wild donkey used to the wilderness—
sniffing the wind in her passion—
in her heat, who can restrain her?
All males that pursue her will not tire themselves.
    At mating time they will find her.
²⁵ Do not run while your feet are bare
        and your throat is thirsty.
    But you said ‘There is no hope!
No! For I have loved foreign gods
        and I will go after them.’
²⁶ As a thief is shamed when caught,
        so the house of Israel is shamed—
    they, their kings, their princes,
        their kohanim and their prophets.
²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father’
        and to a stone, ‘You birthed me.’
    They have turned their back to Me
        and not their face.
    Yet when they are in trouble
        they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’
²⁸ Where are your gods that you made for yourself?
    Let them come—if they can save you
        when you are in trouble!
    For you have as many gods
        as you have cities, O Judah.
²⁹ Why do you strive with Me?
    You have all rebelled against Me.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.