Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ Why dost thou stand afar off, O LORD? Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble?

² The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

³ For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire and blesses the covetous, whom the LORD abhors.

⁴ The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, does not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

⁵ His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he puffs at them.

⁶ He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.

⁷ His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

⁸ He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places he murders the innocent: his eyes are secretly set against the poor.

⁹ He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lies in wait to catch the poor: he catches the poor when he draws him into his net.

¹⁰ He crouches and hides himself, and many are those who fall under his power.

¹¹ He has said in his heart, God has forgotten; he hides his face; he will never see it.

¹² ¶ Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand; forget not the humble.

¹³ In what does the wicked irritate God? He has said in his heart, Thou wilt not require accountability.

¹⁴ Thou hast seen it, for thou dost behold mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand: the poor commits himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵ Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until thou find none.

¹⁶ The LORD is King for ever and ever; the Gentiles are perished out of his land.

¹⁷ LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

¹⁸ to judge the fatherless and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no longer oppress.

¹⁶ ¶ Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

¹⁷ Dost thou not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸ The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹ Shall they provoke me to anger? said the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

²⁰ Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched.

²¹ ¶ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel said: Add your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices and eat flesh.

²² For I did not speak unto your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

²³ But this thing I commanded them, saying, Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you.

²⁴ But they did not hearken, nor incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels in the imagination of their evil heart and went backward, and not forward

²⁵ since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day. I have even sent unto you all my slaves, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them;

²⁶ yet they did not hearken unto me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

⁷ ¶ And to the angel of the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} in Philadelphia write; These things, saith he that is Holy and True, he who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts and shuts, and no one opens;

⁸ I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no one can shut it, for thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name.

⁹ Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold, I will constrain them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee.

¹⁰ Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the entire world, to try those that dwell upon the earth.

¹¹ Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.

¹² He that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God which is the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from and with my God, and I will write upon him my new name.

¹³ He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}