Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
71 In Thee, O Jehovah, I have trusted, Let me not be ashamed to the age.
2 In Thy righteousness Thou dost deliver me, And dost cause me to escape, Incline unto me Thine ear, and save me.
3 Be to me for a rock -- a habitation, To go in continually, Thou hast given command to save me, For my rock and my bulwark [art] Thou.
4 O my God, cause me to escape From the hand of the wicked, From the hand of the perverse and violent.
5 For Thou [art] my hope, O Lord Jehovah, My trust from my youth.
6 By Thee I have been supported from the womb, From my mother's bowels Thou dost cut me out, In Thee [is] my praise continually.
6 Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, From the midst of Jerusalem, And in Tekoa blow ye a trumpet, And over Beth-Haccerem lift ye up a flame, For evil hath been seen from the north, And great destruction.
2 The comely and the delicate one I have cut off, The daughter of Zion.
3 Unto her come do shepherds and their droves, They have stricken tents by her round about, They have fed each [in] his own station.
4 Sanctify ye against her the battle, Rise, and we go up at noon. Wo to us, for turned hath the day, For stretched out are the shades of evening,
5 `Rise, and we go up by night, And we destroy her palaces.'
6 For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Cut down her wood, And pour out against Jerusalem a mount, She [is] the city to be inspected, Wholly -- she is oppression in her midst.
7 As the digging of a well, is [for] its waters, So she hath digged [for] her wickedness, Violence and spoil is heard in her, Before My face continually [are] sickness and smiting.
8 Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul be alienated from thee, Lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.
9 Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: They surely glean, as a vine, the remnant of Israel, Put back thy hand, as a gatherer to the baskets.
10 To whom do I speak, and testify, and they hear? Lo, their ear [is] uncircumcised, And they are not able to attend. Lo, a word of Jehovah hath been to them for a reproach, They delight not in it.
11 And with the fury of Jehovah I have been filled, (I have been weary of containing,) To pour [it] on the suckling in the street, And on the assembly of youths together, For even husband with wife are captured, An elder with one full of days,
12 And their houses have been turned to others, Fields and wives together, For I stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, An affirmation of Jehovah.
13 For from their least unto their greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, And from prophet even unto priest, Every one is dealing falsely,
14 And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, `Peace, peace!' and there is no peace.
15 They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, Yea, blushing they have not known, Therefore they do fall among those falling, In the time I have inspected them, They stumble, said Jehovah.
16 Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where [is] this -- the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, `We do not go.'
17 And I have raised up for you watchmen, Attend ye to the voice of the trumpet. And they say, `We do not attend.'
18 Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O company, That which [is] upon them.
19 Hear, O earth, lo, I am bringing evil on this people, The fruit of their devices, For to My words they gave no attention, And My law -- they kick against it.
3 for consider again him who endured such gainsaying from the sinners to himself, that ye may not be wearied in your souls -- being faint.
4 Not yet unto blood did ye resist -- with the sin striving;
5 and ye have forgotten the exhortation that doth speak fully with you as with sons, `My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by Him,
6 for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;'
7 if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten?
8 and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons.
9 Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live?
10 for they, indeed, for a few days, according to what seemed good to them, were chastening, but He for profit, to be partakers of His separation;
11 and all chastening for the present, indeed, doth not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, yet afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those exercised through it -- it doth yield.
12 Wherefore, the hanging-down hands and the loosened knees set ye up;
13 and straight paths make for your feet, that that which is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be healed;
14 peace pursue with all, and the separation, apart from which no one shall see the Lord,
15 looking diligently over lest any one be failing of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may give trouble, and through this many may be defiled;
16 lest any one be a fornicator, or a profane person, as Esau, who in exchange for one morsel of food did sell his birthright,
17 for ye know that also afterwards, wishing to inherit the blessing, he was disapproved of, for a place of reformation he found not, though with tears having sought it.