Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
An instruction: of Asaph.
74 Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.
4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.
5 [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;
6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.
7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land.
9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 *Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
14 *Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
15 *Thou* didst cleave fountain and torrent, *thou* driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; *thou* hast prepared the moon and the sun:
17 *Thou* hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter—*thou* didst form them.
18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
8 Woe unto them that add house to house, that join field to field, until there is no more room, and that ye dwell yourselves alone in the midst of the land!
9 In mine ears Jehovah of hosts [hath said], Many houses shall assuredly become a desolation, great and excellent ones, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.
11 Woe unto them that, rising early in the morning, run after strong drink; that linger till twilight, [till] wine inflameth them!
12 And harp and lyre, tambour and flute, and wine are in their banquets; but they regard not the work of Jehovah, nor do they see the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are led away captive from lack of knowledge, and their nobility die of famine, and their multitude are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore doth Sheol enlarge its desire, and open its mouth without measure; and her splendour shall descend [into it], and her multitude, and her tumult, and [all] that is joyful within her.
15 And the mean man shall be bowed down, and the great man brought low, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low;
16 and Jehovah of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God hallowed in righteousness.
17 And the lambs shall feed as on their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as with cart-ropes!
19 who say, Let him hasten, let him speed his work, that we may see [it]; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
20 Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and intelligent in their own esteem!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty for drinking wine, and men valiant to mix strong drink;
23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and turn away the righteousness of the righteous from them!
4 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God;
3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that [power] of the antichrist, [of] which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.
4 *Ye* are of God, children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that [is] in you than he that [is] in the world.
5 *They* are of the world; for this reason they speak [as] of the world, and the world hears them.
6 *We* are of God; he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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