Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 71

¹ In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and confidently take refuge; let me never be put to shame or confusion!

² Deliver me in Your righteousness and cause me to escape; bow down Your ear to me and save me!

³ Be to me a rock of refuge in which to dwell, and a sheltering stronghold to which I may continually resort, which You have appointed to save me, for You are my Rock and my Fortress.

⁴ Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man.

⁵ For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence.

⁶ Upon You have I leaned and relied from birth; You are He Who took me from my mother’s womb and You have been my benefactor from that day. My praise is continually of You.

1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin [two or three miles north of Jerusalem],

² To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah in the thirteenth year of his reign.

³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem into captivity in the fifth month.^(A)

¹¹ Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch or shoot of an almond tree [the emblem of alertness and activity, blossoming in late winter].

¹² Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.

¹³ And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and the face of it is [tipped away] from the north [its mouth about to pour forth on the south, on Judea].

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north the evil [which the prophets had foretold as the result of national sin] shall disclose itself and break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵ For, behold, I will call all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they will come and set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah [as God’s judicial act, a consequence of Judah’s wickedness].

¹⁶ And I will utter My judgments against them for all the wickedness of those who have forsaken Me, burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands [idols].

¹⁷ But you [Jeremiah], gird up your loins! Arise and tell them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed and break down at the sight of their faces, lest I confound you before them and permit you to be overcome.

¹⁸ For I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land—against the [successive] kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land [giving you divine strength which no hostile power can overcome].^(A)

¹⁹ And they shall fight against you, but they shall not [finally] prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

6 One Sabbath while Jesus was passing through the fields of standing grain, it occurred that His disciples picked some of the spikes and ate [of the grain], rubbing it out in their hands.^(A)

² But some of the Pharisees asked them, Why are you doing what is not permitted to be done on the Sabbath days?^(B)

³ And Jesus replied to them, saying, Have you never so much as read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him?—^(C)

⁴ How he went into the house of God and took and ate the [sacred] loaves of the showbread, which it is not permitted for any except only the priests to eat, and also gave to those [who were] with him?^(D)

⁵ And He said to them, The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.