Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Prayer for God to Punish the Sinful
58 Do you speak what is right and good, O you powerful ones? Are you always right in how you judge, O sons of men? 2 No, in your heart you do what is wrong. You use your hands to hurt and destroy in the land. 3 The sinful go wrong as soon as they are born. Those who speak lies go the wrong way from birth. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake. They are like a cobra that cannot or will not listen. 5 It does not hear the voice of the man who has power over it, even if the man is very good in his work.
6 O God, break the teeth in their mouth. Break out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord. 7 Let them flow away like water that pours. When he uses his arrows, let them have no heads. 8 Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes. Like a baby born dead, may they never see the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns, He will blow them away with a storm, both the green and the burning ones.
10 The one who is right and good will be full of joy when he sees the sinful punished. He will wash his feet in their blood. 11 And men will say, “For sure there is pay for those who are right and good. For sure there is a God Who says who is guilty or not on the earth.”
15 Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with much learning and understanding. 16 And in those days when you have become many in the land,” says the Lord, “they will no more say, ‘The special box with the Law of the Lord.’ It will not come to mind, and they will not remember it. They will not miss it, and it will not be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The throne of the Lord.’ And all the nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. They will not follow the strong-will of their sinful heart any more. 18 In those days the people of Judah will walk with the people of Israel. They will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as a gift.
God’s People Worship False Gods
19 “Then I said, ‘How I would like to make you My sons and give you a pleasing land, the most beautiful land of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You will call Me, “My Father,” and not turn away from following Me.’ 20 For sure, as a woman is not faithful and leaves her husband, so you have not been faithful to Me, O people of Israel,” says the Lord.
21 A voice is heard on the open hill-tops, the cries and prayers of the sons of Israel, because they have made their way sinful. They have forgotten the Lord their God. 22 “Return, O sons who are not faithful. I will heal you and make you faithful.” “See, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God. 23 For sure the hills are a false hope, a noise on the mountains. In truth, the saving of Israel is in the Lord our God. 24 But false gods have brought us shame and have destroyed what our fathers worked for since we were young, their flocks and cattle, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our shame cover us. For we and our fathers have sinned against the Lord our God ever since we were young. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
15 When one of those eating at the table with Jesus heard this, he said, “Everyone is happy who will eat in the holy nation of God.”
The Picture-Story of the Big Supper (A)
16 Then Jesus said to the leader of the proud religious law-keepers, “There was a man who was giving a big supper. He asked many people to come to eat. 17 When it was about time to eat, he sent one of the servants he owned to tell those he had asked, saying, ‘Come, everything is ready now.’ 18 They all gave different reasons why they could not come. The first said, ‘I have bought some land and I must go and see it. Do not expect me to come.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought ten cows to use for working in my fields. I must go and try them out. Do not expect me to come.’ 20 And another one said, ‘I have just been married and I cannot come.’
21 “The servant went back to his owner and told him these things. Then his owner became angry. He said to his servant, ‘Hurry into the streets and narrow roads of the city and bring poor people here. Bring those whose bodies are diseased. Bring those who cannot walk and those who are blind.’ 22 The servant came back and said, ‘Sir, what you told me to do has been done. But there are still some empty places.’ 23 Then the owner said to his servant, ‘Go out along the roads leading away from the city and into the fields. Tell them they must come. Do this so my house will be filled. 24 I tell you, not one of those I had asked will eat of my supper.’”
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