Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A complaint over the devastation of the land by the enemy.
Maschil of Asaph.
74 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?
Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old,
Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance;
And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins,
[a]All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly;
They have set up their ensigns for signs.
5 They [b]seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
6 And now all the carved work thereof
They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire;
They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name by casting it to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether:
They have burned up all the [c]synagogues of God 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 blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand?
Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them.
12 Yet God is my King of old,
Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst [d]divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood:
Thou driedst up [e]mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the [f]light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy [g]hath reproached, O Jehovah,
And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
19 Oh deliver not [h]the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast:
Forget not the [i]life of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant;
For the dark places of the [j]earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed:
Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, 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 [k]ascendeth continually.
27 In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the [a]swift serpent, and leviathan the [b]crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.
2 In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing ye [c]unto it. 3 I Jehovah am its keeper; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4 Wrath is not in me: would that the briers and thorns were against me in battle! I would march upon them, I would burn them together. 5 Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; yea, let him make peace with me. 6 [d]In days to come shall Jacob take root; Israel shall blossom and bud; and they shall fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Hath he smitten them as he smote those that smote them? or are they slain according to the slaughter [e]of them that were slain by them? 8 [f]In measure, [g]when thou sendest them away, thou dost contend with them; he hath removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. 9 Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be [h]forgiven, and this is all the fruit [i]of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more. 10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. 11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have compassion upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will [j]beat off his fruit from the flood of the River unto the brook of Egypt; and ye shall be [k]gathered [l]one by one, O ye children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come that were [m]ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
45 And he entered into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold, 46 saying unto them, It is written, [a]And my house shall be a house of prayer: but [b]ye have made it a den of robbers.
47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him: 48 and they could not find what they might do; for the people all hung upon him, listening.
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