Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, show thyself.

² Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

³ LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

⁴ How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

⁵ They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thy heritage.

⁶ They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless.

⁷ Yet they say, JAH shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

⁸ Understand, ye carnal ones among the people, and, ye fools, when will ye be wise?

⁹ He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

¹⁰ He that chastens the Gentiles, shall he not correct? he that teaches man knowledge, shall not he know?

¹¹ The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

¹² ¶ Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O JAH, and teach him out of thy law,

¹³ to cause him to rest in the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴ For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

¹⁵ But the judgment shall be returned unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

¹⁷ Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would have quickly dwelt with the dead.

¹⁸ When I said, My foot slips, thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.

¹⁹ In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.

²⁰ Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, who creates toil under the guise of law?

²¹ They gather themselves together as an army against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood.

²² But the LORD is my refuge, and my God is the rock of my trust.

²³ And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

5 ¶ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and find out and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that execute judgment, that seek the truth; and I will pardon the city.

² And if they should say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

³ O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they did not feel it; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive chastisement; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they have become foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD nor the judgment of their God.

⁵ I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.

⁶ Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the desert shall destroy them and a tiger shall lie in wait over their cities; anyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their rebellions have been multiplied, and their backslidings are increased.

⁷ How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy sons have forsaken me and sworn by them that are not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

⁸ They were as fed horses in the morning; each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ ¶ Go ye up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements for they are not the LORD’s.

¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made a firm decision to rebel against me, saith the LORD.

¹² They have denied the LORD and said, He is not; and evil shall not come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine;

¹³ but the prophets shall become like wind, and there is no word in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

¹⁴ Therefore thus hath the LORD God of the hosts said: Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the LORD; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou dost not know, neither dost thou understand what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver is as an open sepulcher; they are all mighty men.

¹⁷ And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; and thy fenced cities, in which thou dost trust, they shall bring to nothing with the sword.

¹⁸ ¶ This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, so that according to past prophecies regarding thee, that thou by them might war a good warfare;

¹⁹ holding fast faith and a good conscience, which some, having cast away, have shipwrecked in their faith,

²⁰ Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.