Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 52
Judgment on the Deceitful
To the leader. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?[a]
All day long(A) 2 you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.(B)
3 You love evil more than good
and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah(C)
4 You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.(D)
5 But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah(E)
6 The righteous will see and fear
and will laugh at the evildoer,[b] saying,(F)
7 “See the one who would not take
refuge in God
but trusted in abundant riches
and sought refuge in wealth!”[c](G)
Complacent Self-Indulgence Will Be Punished
6 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel resorts!(A)
2 Cross over to Calneh and see;
from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better[a] than these kingdoms?
Or is your[b] territory greater than their[c] territory,(B)
3 you who put far away the evil day
and bring near a reign of violence?(C)
4 Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and lounge on their couches
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall,(D)
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David improvise on instruments of music,(E)
6 who drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!(F)
7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.(G)
8 The Lord God has sworn by himself
(says the Lord, the God of hosts):
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.(H)
9 If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. 10 And if a relative, one who burns it,[d] takes up the body to bring it out of the house and says to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative[e] shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
11 For the Lord commands,
and he will shatter the great house to bits
and the little house to pieces.(I)
12 Do horses run on rocky crags?
Does one plow the sea with oxen?[f]
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,(J)
13 you who rejoice in Lo-debar,[g]
who say, “Have we not by our own strength
taken Karnaim[h] for ourselves?”
14 Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
to the Wadi Arabah.(K)
The Parable of the Sower
4 When a large crowd was gathering, as people were coming to him from town after town, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell on a path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and as it grew up it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Some fell into good soil, and when it grew it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”(A)
The Purpose of the Parables
9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant.(B) 10 He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets[a] of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak[b] in parables, so that
‘looking they may not perceive
and hearing they may not understand.’
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.