Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ ¶ O God, the Gentiles are come into thine inheritance; they have defiled the temple of thy holiness; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

² The dead bodies of thy slaves they have given to be food unto the fowls of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

³ They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

⁴ We are reproached by our neighbours, scorned, and derided by those that are round about us.

⁵ How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

⁶ ¶ Pour out thy wrath upon the Gentiles that do not know thee and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon thy name.

⁷ For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.

⁸ O remember not against us former iniquities; let thy tender mercies speedily meet us on the way, for we are very poor.

⁹ Help us, O God, our saving health, for the honor of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

¹⁴ Upon what shall we secure ourselves? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

¹⁶ The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole earth trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein.

¹⁷ For, behold, I send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, said the LORD.

² Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them! for they are all adulterers, a congregation of rebels.

³ And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evil to evil, and they did not recognize me, said the LORD.

⁴ Take heed each one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

⁵ And they will deceive each one his neighbour and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

⁶ Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

⁷ Therefore thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Behold, I will melt them and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

⁸ Their tongue is as a sharp arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he lays in wait.

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

¹⁰ Upon the mountains I will lift up weeping and wailing and lamentation upon the habitations of the wilderness because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and even the beasts of the earth are fled; they are gone.

¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

⁴¹ ¶ And with Jesus sitting in front of the ark of the offering, he beheld how the people cast money into the ark and many that were rich cast in much.

⁴² And as there came a certain poor widow, she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

⁴³ Then calling his disciples, he said unto them, Verily I say unto you that this poor widow has cast more in than all those who have cast into the treasury,

⁴⁴ for they all did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.