Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

^2 (1) God, we heard it with our ears;
our fathers told us about it —
a deed which you did in their days,
back in days of old.
^3 (2) With your hand you drove out nations
to plant them in [the land],
you crushed peoples
to make room for them.

^4 (3) For not by their own swords
did they conquer the land,
nor did their own arm
give them victory;
rather, it was your right hand,
your arm and the light of your face;
because you favored them.
^5 (4) God, you are my king;
command complete victory for Ya‘akov.

^6 (5) Through you we pushed away our foes,
through your name we trampled down our assailants.
^7 (6) For I don’t rely on my bow,
nor can my sword give me victory.
^8 (7) No, you saved us from our adversaries;
you put to shame those who hate us.
^9 (8) We will boast in our God all day
and give thanks to your name forever. (Selah)

^10 (9) Yet now you have thrust us aside and disgraced us;
you don’t march out with our armies.
^11 (10) You make us retreat from the adversary,
and those who hate us plunder us at will.
^12 (11) You have handed us over like sheep to be eaten
and scattered us among the nations.
^13 (12) You sell your people for a pittance,
you don’t even profit on the sale.
^14 (13) You make us an object for our neighbors to mock,
one of scorn and derision to those around us.
^15 (14) You make us a byword among the nations;
the peoples jeer at us, shaking their heads.

^16 (15) All day long my disgrace is on my mind,
and shame has covered my face
^17 (16) at the sound of those who revile and insult,
at the sight of the enemy bent on revenge.
^18 (17) Though all this came on us, we did not forget you;
we have not been false to your covenant;
^19 (18) Our hearts have not turned back,
and our steps did not turn away from your path,
^20 (19) though you pressed us into a lair of jackals
and covered us with death-dark gloom.
^21 (20) If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
^22 (21) wouldn’t God have discovered this,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
^23 (22) For your sake we are put to death all day long,
we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.

^24 (23) Wake up, Adonai! Why are you asleep?
Rouse yourself! Don’t thrust us off forever.
^25 (24) Why are you turning your face away,
forgetting our pain and misery?
^26 (25) For we are lying flat in the dust,
our bodies cling to the ground.
^27 (26) Get up, and come to help us!
For the sake of your grace, redeem us!

“When I restore the fortunes of my people,
7 when I am ready to heal Isra’el,
the crimes of Efrayim confront me,
along with the wickedness of Shomron.
For they keep practicing deceit;
thieves break in, bands of robbers raid outside.
² They never say to themselves
that I remember all their evil.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are right in front of me.
³ They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the leaders with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by the baker,
who doesn’t stoke the fire
from kneading time till the dough has risen.

⁵ “On their king’s special day
the leaders inflame him with wine,
and he joins hands with scorners,
⁶ who ready themselves like an oven
while they wait for their chance.
Their baker sleeps through the night;
then in the morning it bursts into flame.
⁷ They are all as hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen;
not one of them calls out to me.

⁸ “Efrayim mixes himself with the peoples,
Efrayim has become a half-baked cake.
⁹ Foreigners have eaten up his strength,
but he doesn’t know it;
yes, gray hairs appear on him here and there,
but he doesn’t know it.
¹⁰ The pride of Isra’el testifies in his face,
but in spite of all this they haven’t returned
to Adonai their God or sought him.
¹¹ Efrayim behaves like a silly, foolish dove —
going to Egypt, then to Ashur for help.
¹² Even as they go, I will spread my net over them;
I will bring them down like birds from the sky;
I will discipline them, as their assembly was told.
¹³ Woe to them! for they have strayed from me.
Destruction to them! for they have wronged me.
Am I supposed to redeem them,
when they have spoken lies against me?
¹⁴ They have not cried out to me from their hearts,
even though they wail on their beds.
They assemble themselves for grain and wine,
yet turn away from me.
¹⁵ It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward;
they are like an unreliable bow.
Their leaders will die by the sword
because of their angry talk.
They will become a laughingstock
in the land of Egypt.