Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Maschil of Asaph.

¹ ¶ O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why does thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

² Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed, this Mount Zion, in which thou hast dwelt.

³ Lift up thy feet unto the eternal desolations, unto every enemy who has done wickedly in the sanctuary.

⁴ Thine enemies have roared in the midst of thy assemblies; they set up their own banners for signs.

⁵ Renowned, as one on the way to heaven, he who lifted up axes upon the thick trees for the work of the sanctuary.

⁶ But now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.

⁷ They have set fire to thy sanctuaries; they have defiled the tabernacle of thy name in the earth.

⁸ They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them at once; they have burned up all the meeting places of the people of God in the earth.

⁹ We no longer see our own banners; there is no longer any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows. How long shall this be?

¹⁰ O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

¹¹ Why dost thou withdraw thy hand, even thy right hand? Why dost thou hide it in thy bosom.

¹² ¶ For God is my King from of old, he who works saving health in the midst of the earth.

¹³ Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the dragons in the waters.

¹⁴ Thou didst break the heads of leviathan in pieces and didst give him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

¹⁵ Thou didst cleave the fountain and the river; thou didst dry up mighty rivers.

¹⁶ The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the 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 has spoken against the LORD and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

¹⁹ O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the beasts; forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.

²⁰ Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

²¹ O let not the oppressed return ashamed; the poor and destitute shall praise thy name.

²² Arise, O God, plead thine own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches thee daily.

²³ Forget not the voices of thine enemies; the tumult of those that rise up against thee increases continually.

27 ¶ In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall visit punishment upon leviathan the fleeing serpent, and upon leviathan that serpent of double vision; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

² In that day sing ye unto the vineyard of the red wine.

³ I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest the enemy visit it, I will keep it night and day.

⁴ Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would tread them down, I would burn them together.

⁵ Or who shall take hold of my strength? Make peace with me, yea, make peace with me.

⁶ Days shall come when Jacob shall take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and the face of the world shall be filled with fruit.

⁷ ¶ Has he been smitten as he who smote him? or has he been slain as those who slew him?

⁸ In measure, she shall be chastised in her stalks: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

⁹ Therefore, in this manner shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this shall be all the fruit, the removal of his sin; when he shall return all the stones of the altar, as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder that they may not raise up the groves, or the images of the sun.

¹⁰ Otherwise the defenced city shall be made desolate, and the habitation shall be forsaken and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof.

¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they shall be broken off: women shall come and set them on fire: for this is not a people of understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.

¹² And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall smite from the channel of the river Euphrates unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye sons of Israel.

¹³ And it shall come to pass in that day that the great shofar shall be blown, and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

⁴⁵ And he went into the temple and began to cast out those selling and buying therein,

⁴⁶ saying unto them, It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

⁴⁷ And he taught daily in the temple. But the princes of the priests and the scribes and the principals of the people sought to kill him

⁴⁸ and could not find what they might do, for all the people were very attentive to hear him.