Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the Overcomer for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
1 ¶ We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days in the times of old.
2 How thou didst drive out the Gentiles with thy hand and plant them in their place; how thou didst afflict the peoples and cast them out.
3 For they did not get the land in inheritance by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance because thy delight was in them.
4 Thou art my King, O God; command saving health unto Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our enemies; through thy name will we tread under those that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put to shame those that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 ¶ But thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and doth not go forth with our armies.
10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy, and we are spoiled by those who hate us.
11 Thou hast given us over like sheep appointed for food and hast scattered us among the Gentiles.
12 Thou hast sold thy people for nothing and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to those that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 for the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes by reason of the enemy and of the avenger.
17 ¶ All this is come upon us; yet we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way
19 though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 shall not God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, do not cast us off for ever.
24 Why dost thou hide thy face and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaves unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help and ransom us for thy mercies’ sake.
11 Also, Judah placed a plant in thee when I had turned the captivity of my people.
7 ¶ When I was healing Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they worked deceit; and the thief comes in, and the troop of robbers spoils without.
2 And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness; now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers as an oven heated by the baker who shall cease from waking after he has kneaded the dough until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with a wineskin; he stretched out his hand with the scorners.
6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; their baker sleeps all night; in the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is no one among them that calls unto me.
8 ¶ Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he does not know it; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he does not understand.
10 And the pride of Israel shall testify to his face, and they have not returned to the LORD their God, nor have they sought him with all this.
11 Ephraim also was like a deceived dove, without understanding; they shall call to Egypt, they shall go to Assyria.
12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them according to what has been heard in their congregations.
13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction upon them! because they have rebelled against me; though I have ransomed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds; they congregated themselves for the wheat and the wine, and they rebelled against me.
15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet they imagine evil against me.
16 They returned, but not to the most High; they were like a deceitful bow; their princes fell by the sword for the arrogance of their tongue; this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
43 ¶ Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who speak evil about you, and persecute you;
45 that ye may be sons of your Father who is in the heavens, for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love those who love you, what reward shall ye have? Do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye embrace your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in the heavens is perfect.
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