Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

107 Say thank you to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind. ² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has saved you from your enemies.

³ He brought the exiles back from the farthest corners of the earth. ⁴ They were wandering homeless in the desert, ⁵ hungry and thirsty and faint. ⁶ “Lord, help!” they cried, and he did! ⁷ He led them straight to safety and a place to live. ⁸ Oh, that these men would praise the Lord for his loving-kindness, and for all of his wonderful deeds! ⁹ For he satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry soul with good.

⁴³ Listen, if you are wise, to what I am saying. Think about the loving-kindness of the Lord!

9 O Israel, rejoice no more as others do, for you have deserted your God and sacrificed to other gods on every threshing floor.

² Therefore your harvests will be small; your grapes will blight upon the vine.

³ You may no longer stay here in this land of God; you will be carried off to Egypt and Assyria and live there on scraps of food. ⁴ There, far from home, you are not allowed to pour out wine for sacrifice to God. For no sacrifice that is offered there can please him; it is polluted, just as food of mourners is; all who eat such sacrifices are defiled. They may eat this food to feed themselves, but may not offer it to God. ⁵ What then will you do on holy days, on days of feasting to the Lord, ⁶ when you are carried off to Assyria as slaves? Who will inherit your possessions left behind? Egypt will! She will gather your dead; Memphis will bury them. And thorns and thistles will grow up among the ruins.

⁷ The time of Israel’s punishment has come; the day of recompense is almost here, and soon Israel will know it all too well. “The prophets are crazy”; “The inspired men are mad.” Yes, so they mock, for the nation is weighted with sin and shows only hatred for those who love God.

⁸ “I appointed the prophets to guard my people, but the people have blocked them at every turn and publicly declared their hatred, even in the Temple of the Lord. ⁹ The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah^[a] long ago. The Lord does not forget. He will surely punish them.

¹⁰ “O Israel, how well I remember those first delightful days when I led you through the wilderness! How refreshing was your love! How satisfying, like the early figs of summer in their first season! But then you deserted me for Baal-peor,^[b] to give yourselves to other gods, and soon you were as foul as they. ¹¹ The glory of Israel flies away like a bird, for your children will die at birth, or perish in the womb, or never even be conceived. ¹² And if your children grow, I will take them from you; all are doomed. Yes, it will be a sad day when I turn away and leave you alone.”

¹³ In my vision I have seen the sons of Israel doomed. The fathers are forced to lead their sons to slaughter. ¹⁴ O Lord, what shall I ask for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth, for breasts that cannot nourish.

¹⁵ “All their wickedness began at Gilgal;^[c] there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their idolatry. I will love them no more, for all their leaders are rebels. ¹⁶ Ephraim is doomed. The roots of Israel are dried up; she shall bear no more fruit. And if she gives birth, I will slay even her beloved child.”

¹⁷ My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wandering Jews, homeless among the nations.

^17-18 Let me say this, then, speaking for the Lord: Live no longer as the unsaved do, for they are blinded and confused. Their closed hearts are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds against him, and they cannot understand his ways. ¹⁹ They don’t care anymore about right and wrong and have given themselves over to impure ways. They stop at nothing, being driven by their evil minds and reckless lusts.

²⁰ But that isn’t the way Christ taught you! ²¹ If you have really heard his voice and learned from him the truths concerning himself, ²² then throw off your old evil nature—the old you that was a partner in your evil ways—rotten through and through, full of lust and sham.

²³ Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. ²⁴ Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature.