Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 129
A Song of Ascents.
1 “Often they have afflicted me from my youth,”
may Israel now say,
2 “often they have afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowmen plowed upon my back;
they made their furrows long.”
4 The Lord is righteous;
He has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 Let all those be shamed
and turned back who hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass on the housetops,
which withers before it even grows,
7 where the reaper is unable to fill his hand,
or he who binds sheaves, his arms.
8 Neither do they who pass by say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you;
we bless you in the name of the Lord!”
Judgment on Babylon(A)
50 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet:
2 Declare among the nations and publish,
and set up a standard;
do not conceal it, but say,
Babylon has been captured.
Bel has been humiliated.
Marduk has been broken in pieces;
her idols have been humiliated;
her images have been broken in pieces.
3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her,
which will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
They will wander away;
they will depart,
both man and beast.
4 In those days and at that time,
says the Lord,
the sons of Israel will come,
they and the children of Judah together.
They will go along weeping as they go,
and seek the Lord their God.
5 They will ask for the way to Zion
with their faces in its direction.
They will come that they may join themselves to the Lord
in a perpetual covenant
that will not be forgotten.
6 My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have caused them to go astray;
they have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill
and have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them,
and their adversaries said, “We are not guilty,
because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”
17 Israel is a scattered flock.
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria
devoured him;
and this last one who has broken his bones
is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
18 Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel:
I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 I will bring Israel again to his habitation,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan,
and his soul will be satisfied
upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and at that time,
says the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel will be sought for,
and there shall be none.
And the sins of Judah,
but they shall not be found;
for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
The Prayer on the Mount of Olives(A)
39 According to His custom, He came out and went to the Mount of Olives. And His disciples followed Him. 40 When He came there, He said to them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
45 When He rose from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you fall into temptation.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.