Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
74 An Instruction of Asaph. Why, O God, hast Thou cast off for ever? Thine anger smoketh against the flock of Thy pasture.
2 Remember Thy company. Thou didst purchase of old, Thou didst redeem the rod of Thy inheritance, This mount Zion -- Thou didst dwell in it.
3 Lift up Thy steps to the perpetual desolations, Everything the enemy did wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Roared have thine adversaries, In the midst of Thy meeting-places, They have set their ensigns as ensigns.
5 He is known as one bringing in on high Against a thicket of wood -- axes.
6 And now, its carvings together With axe and hatchet they break down,
7 They have sent into fire Thy sanctuary, to the earth they polluted the tabernacle of Thy name,
8 They said in their hearts, `Let us oppress them together,' They did burn all the meeting-places of God in the land.
9 Our ensigns we have not seen, There is no more a prophet, Nor with us is one knowing how long.
10 Till when, O God, doth an adversary reproach? Doth an enemy despise thy name for ever?
11 Why dost Thou turn back Thy hand, Even Thy right hand? From the midst of Thy bosom remove [it].
12 And God [is] my king of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou hast broken by Thy strength a sea-[monster], Thou hast shivered Heads of dragons by the waters,
14 Thou hast broken the heads of leviathan, Thou makest him food, For the people of the dry places.
15 Thou hast cleaved a fountain and a stream, Thou hast dried up perennial flowings.
16 Thine [is] the day, also Thine [is] the night, Thou hast prepared a light giver -- the sun.
17 Thou hast set up all the borders of earth, Summer and winter Thou hast formed them.
18 Remember this -- an enemy reproached Jehovah, And a foolish people have despised Thy name.
19 Give not up to a company, The soul of Thy turtle-dove, The company of Thy poor ones forget not for ever.
20 Look attentively to the covenant, For the dark places of earth, Have been full of habitations of violence.
21 Let not the oppressed turn back ashamed, Let the poor and needy praise Thy name,
22 Arise, O God, plead Thy plea, Remember Thy reproach from a fool all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries, The noise of Thy withstanders is going up continually!
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire devoureth stubble, And flaming hay falleth, Their root is as muck, And their flower as dust goeth up. Because they have rejected the law of Jehovah of Hosts, And the saying of the Holy One of Israel despised.
25 Therefore hath the anger of Jehovah burned among His people, And He stretcheth out His hand against it, And smiteth it, and the mountains tremble, And their carcase is as filth in the midst of the out-places. With all this His anger did not turn back, And still His hand is stretched out!
26 And He lifted up an ensign to nations afar off, And hissed to it from the end of the earth, And lo, with haste, swift it cometh.
27 There is none weary, nor stumbling in it, It doth not slumber, nor sleep, Nor opened hath been the girdle of its loins, Nor drawn away the latchet of its sandals.
28 Whose arrows [are] sharp, and all its bows bent, Hoofs of its horses as flint have been reckoned, And its wheels as a hurricane!
29 Its roaring [is] like a lioness, It roareth like young lions, And it howleth, and seizeth prey, And carrieth away safely, and there is none delivering.
30 And it howleth against it in that day as the howling of a sea, And it hath looked attentively to the land, And lo, darkness -- distress, And light hath been darkened by its abundance!
44 `The tabernacle of the testimony was among our fathers in the wilderness, according as He did direct, who is speaking to Moses, to make it according to the figure that he had seen;
45 which also our fathers having in succession received, did bring in with Joshua, into the possession of the nations whom God did drive out from the presence of our fathers, till the days of David,
46 who found favour before God, and requested to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob;
47 and Solomon built Him an house.
48 `But the Most High in sanctuaries made with hands doth not dwell, according as the prophet saith:
49 The heaven [is] My throne, and the earth My footstool; what house will ye build to Me? saith the Lord, or what [is] the place of My rest?
50 hath not My hand made all these things?
51 `Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and in ears! ye do always the Holy Spirit resist; as your fathers -- also ye;
52 which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed those who declared before about the coming of the Righteous One, of whom now ye betrayers and murderers have become,
53 who received the law by arrangement of messengers, and did not keep [it].'