Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David.

¹ ¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?

² Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

³ The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,

⁵ which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

⁶ ¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

⁷ Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

⁸ As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.

²³ How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

²⁴ a wild ass used to the wilderness that breathes according to the desire of her soul; from her lust, who shall stop her? All those that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

²⁵ Withhold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirst; but thou didst say, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.

²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when he is taken, so shall the house of Israel be ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

²⁷ saying to a piece of firewood, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they say, Arise and deliver us.

²⁸ But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble, for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah.

²⁹ ¶ Why will ye plead with me? Ye have all rebelled against me, saith the LORD.

³⁰ I have smitten your children in vain; they have received no correction; your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

³¹ O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Why do my people say, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

³² Shall the virgin, perchance, forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

³³ Why dost thou trim thy way to seek love? therefore thou hast also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

³⁴ Even in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents; thou didst not find them in any trespass, but by all these things.

³⁵ Yet thou didst say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee because thou hast said, I did not sin.

³⁶ Why dost thou talk so much, changing thy ways? Thou shalt also be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷ Thou shalt also go forth from him with thine hands upon thine head; for the LORD has rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

⁷ Remember your pastors, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation:

⁸ Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for the ages.

⁹ Be not taken out of the way with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with foods which have not profited those that have been occupied with them.

¹⁰ We have an altar, of which those who serve the tabernacle have no faculty to eat.

¹¹ For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.

¹² Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

¹³ Let us go forth, therefore, unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

¹⁴ For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one that is coming.

¹⁵ By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing his name.

¹⁶ Do not forget to do good and to fellowship; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

¹⁷ Listen to your pastors, and do not resist them, for they watch for your souls as those that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you.

¹⁸ ¶ Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience in all things desiring to conduct ourselves well.

¹⁹ And I beseech you all the more to do this, that I may be restored unto you sooner.

²⁰ Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal testament,

²¹ make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. Amen.