Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 10

¹ Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself, [veiling Your eyes] in times of trouble (distress and desperation)?

² The wicked in pride and arrogance hotly pursue and persecute the poor; let them be taken in the schemes which they have devised.

³ For the wicked man boasts (sings the praises) of his own heart’s desire, and the one greedy for gain curses and spurns, yes, renounces and despises the Lord.

⁴ The wicked one in the pride of his countenance will not seek, inquire for, and yearn for God; all his thoughts are that there is no God [so He never punishes].

⁵ His ways are grievous [or persist] at all times; Your judgments [Lord] are far above and on high out of his sight [so he never thinks about them]; as for all his foes, he sniffs and sneers at them.

⁶ He thinks in his heart, I shall not be moved; for throughout all generations I shall not come to want or be in adversity.

⁷ His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, oppression (fraud); under his tongue are trouble and sin (mischief and iniquity).

⁸ He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he slays the innocent; he watches stealthily for the poor (the helpless and unfortunate).

⁹ He lurks in secret places like a lion in his thicket; he lies in wait that he may seize the poor (the helpless and the unfortunate); he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.

¹⁰ [The prey] is crushed, sinks down; and the helpless falls by his mighty [claws].

¹¹ [The foe] thinks in his heart, God has quite forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see [my deed].

¹² Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand; forget not the humble [patient and crushed].

¹³ Why does the wicked [man] condemn (spurn and renounce) God? Why has he thought in his heart, You will not call to account?

¹⁴ You have seen it; yes, You note trouble and grief (vexation) to requite it with Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked man; and as for the evil man, search out his wickedness until You find no more.

¹⁶ The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations will perish out of His land.

¹⁷ O Lord, You have heard the desire and the longing of the humble and oppressed; You will prepare and strengthen and direct their hearts, You will cause Your ear to hear,

¹⁸ To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man, who is of the earth, may not terrify them any more.

²⁷ Speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to and obey you; also call to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸ Yet you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive instruction and correction and warning; truth and faithfulness have perished and have completely vanished from their mouths.

²⁹ Cut off your hair [your crown, O Jerusalem] and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

³⁰ For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations (extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things) in the house which is called by My Name to defile it.

³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [in honor of Molech, the fire god]—which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind or heart.^(A)

³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter, for [in bloody warfare] they will bury in Topheth till there is no more room and no place else to bury.^(B)

³³ And the dead bodies of this people will be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.

³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a waste.

⁶ And it occurred on another Sabbath that when He went into the synagogue and taught, a man was present whose right hand was withered.

⁷ And the scribes and the Pharisees kept watching Jesus to see whether He would [actually] heal on the Sabbath, in order that they might get [some ground for] accusation against Him.

⁸ But He was aware all along of their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here in the midst. And he arose and stood there.

⁹ Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good [^[a]so that someone derives advantage from it] or to do evil, to save a life [and ^[b]make a soul safe] or to destroy it?

¹⁰ Then He glanced around at them all and said to the man, Stretch out your hand! And he did so, and his hand was fully restored ^[c]like the other one.

¹¹ But they were filled with lack of understanding and senseless rage and discussed (consulted) with one another what they might do to Jesus.