Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Lament Over Jerusalem
Psalm 79
1 A Psalm of Asaph.
God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance,
defiled Your holy Temple,
and reduced Jerusalem to ruins.
2 They gave the carcasses of Your servants as food to the birds of the skies,
the flesh of Your kedoshim to the beasts of the earth.
3 They poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
a scorn and derision to those around us.
5 How long, Adonai, will You be angry?
Forever?
Will Your jealousy keep blazing like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath
on the nations that do not acknowledge You,
on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his country.
8 Do not hold against us the sins of our fathers.
May Your mercies come quickly to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, God of our salvation—
for the sake of the glory of Your Name.
Deliver us, and atone for our sins—
for Your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say:
“Where is their God?”
Before our eyes, let it be known among the nations
that You avenge the shed blood of Your servants.
11 Let the prisoner’s groan come to You.
By Your great arm preserve those who are doomed to die.
12 Pay back into the midst of our neighbors sevenfold their reproach—
the reproach they hurled at You, my Lord.
13 So we, Your people, the flock of Your pasture,
will praise You forever.
From generation to generation
we will recount Your praise.
6 “In that day”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“I will gather her who is limping,
and her who was banished will I collect,
even those whom I have afflicted.
7 I will make her who was limping into a remnant,
and her who was banished a mighty nation.
Adonai will reign over them on Mount Zion
from that time and forever.”
8 But you, watchtower of the flock,
are the hill of the Daughter of Zion.
To you she will come.
Even the former dominion will come,
the kingdom of the Daughter of Jerusalem.
9 Why are you crying out aloud now?
Is there no King within you?
Has your counselor perished,
so that agony has gripped you like birth pangs?
10 Writhe and give birth, Daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor.
For now you will go forth from a city.
You will dwell in the field,
and you will come as far as Babylon.
There you will be rescued.
There will Adonai redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.
11 But now many nations
have assembled against you,
those who are saying, “Let her be defiled,
and let our eyes gaze on Zion.”
12 But they do not know Adonai’s thoughts,
nor understand His plan.
For He has gathered them
like grain to a threshing floor.
13 Arise and tread, Daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hooves bronze.
You will thresh many peoples.
I will devote their unjust gain to Adonai,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Judgment of Babylon
18 After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his glory. 2 He cried out with a mighty voice, saying:
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great![a]
She has become a den for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit
and for every unclean bird
and for every unclean and detestable beast.[b]
3 For all the nations have drunk
of the wine of the fury of her immorality.
The kings of the earth have committed
sexual immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth
grew rich off the power
of her self-indulgence.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,[c]
lest you participate in her sins
and receive her plagues!
5 For her sins have piled up to heaven,[d]
and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Pay her back just as she has paid out,
and give her back double for her deeds![e]
In the cup she has mixed—
mix a double dose for her!
7 As she has exalted herself and indulged herself in luxury,
so give her the same measure of torment and grief!
For in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen—
I am no widow;
I shall never see grief.’[f]
8 For this reason her plagues will arrive in
a single day—
death and grief and famine—
and she shall be burned down with fire.[g]
For mighty is Adonai Elohim who judges her!”
9 Then the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and indulged in luxury with her shall weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning[h]— 10 standing far off because of the terror of her torment, saying:
“Alas, alas, O great city—
O Babylon, the mighty city!
For in a single hour your judgment has come!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.