Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 58
For the Music Director. To the melody of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David.
1 Do you truly speak righteousness, O heavenly gods?
Do you judge uprightly, O earthly men?
2 Indeed, in the heart you work wickedness;
you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb onward;
those who speak lies go astray from birth.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
they are like the deaf adder that plugs its ear,
5 and will not listen to the voice of charmers,
even the best and wisest enchanter.
6 Break their teeth in their mouth, O God;
break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
7 May they melt away as waters which run continually;
when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be trodden under.
8 May they become as a snail that melts as it goes,
like the untimely birth of a woman, may they not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns’ heat, green or burning,
may He sweep them away.
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 and people will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on the earth.”
Unfaithful Israel
3 If a man divorces his wife,
and she goes from him and becomes another man’s,
shall he return to her again?
Shall not that land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the harlot with many lovers;
yet return again to Me,
says the Lord.
2 Lift up your eyes to the high places,
and see! Where have you not been ravished?
In the roads you have sat for them
as the Arabian in the wilderness.
And you have polluted the land
with your harlotry and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and there has been no latter rain.
And you had a harlot’s forehead;
you refused to be ashamed.
4 Shall you not from this time cry to Me,
“My Father, You are the guide of my youth?
5 Shall He reserve His anger forever?
Shall He keep it to the end?”
Indeed, you have spoken
and done evil things as you could.
A Call to Repentance
6 The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. 7 I said after she had done all these things, “Turn to Me.” But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 I saw that for all the adulteries of backsliding Israel, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. 9 Through the lightness of her harlotry she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with trees. 10 Yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the Lord.
God Invites Repentance
11 The Lord said to me: Backsliding Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
Return, backsliding Israel, says the Lord,
and I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am merciful, says the Lord,
and I will not keep anger forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity,
that you have transgressed against the Lord your God
and have scattered your ways to the strangers
under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed My voice,
says the Lord.
14 Return, O backsliding sons, says the Lord. For I am married to you. And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Salutation
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth which leads to godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began, 3 and has in due time revealed His word through preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior,
4 To Titus, my own son in the common faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus’ Work in Crete
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I commanded you: 6 any man who is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of being wild or unruly. 7 For an overseer must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not easily angered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of what is good, self-controlled, just, holy, temperate, 9 holding firmly the trustworthy word that is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to convince those who oppose it.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.