Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

65 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A psalm of David. A song:

^2 (1) To you, God, in Tziyon, silence is praise;
and vows to you are to be fulfilled.
^3 (2) You who listen to prayer,
to you all living creatures come.
^4 (3) When deeds of wickedness overwhelm me,
you will atone for our crimes.

^5 (4) How blessed are those you choose and bring near,
so that they can remain in your courtyards!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the Holy Place of your temple.
^6 (5) It is just that you answer us with awesome deeds,
God of our salvation,
you in whom all put their trust,
to the ends of the earth and on distant seas.
^7 (6) By your strength you set up the mountains.
You are clothed with power.
^8 (7) You still the roaring of the seas,
their crashing waves, and the peoples’ turmoil.
^9 (8) This is why those living at the ends of the earth
stand in awe of your signs.
The places where the sun rises and sets
you cause to sing for joy.

^10 (9) You care for the earth and water it,
you enrich it greatly;
with the river of God, full of water,
you provide them grain and prepare the ground.
^11 (10) Soaking its furrows and settling its soil,
you soften it with showers and bless its growth.
^12 (11) You crown the year with your goodness,
your tracks overflow with richness.
^13 (12) The desert pastures drip water,
the hills are wrapped with joy,
^14 (13) the meadows are clothed with flocks
and the valleys blanketed with grain,
so they shout for joy and break into song.

² “Hear this, you leaders!
Listen, all who live in the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your days,
or in your ancestors’ days?
³ Tell your children about it,
and have them tell it to theirs,
and have them tell the next generation.
⁴ What the cutter-worms left, the locusts ate;
what the locusts left, the grasshoppers ate;
what the grasshoppers left, the shearer-worms ate.
⁵ Wake up, drunkards, and weep!
wail, all you who drink wine,
because the juice of the grape
will be withheld from your mouth.
⁶ For a mighty and numberless nation
has invaded my land.
His teeth are lion’s teeth;
his fangs are those of a lioness.
⁷ He has reduced my vines to waste,
my fig trees to splinters —
he plucked them bare, stripped their bark
and left their branches white.”

⁸ Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the husband of her youth!
⁹ Grain offering and drink offering are cut off
from the house of Adonai.
The cohanim are mourning,
those who are serving Adonai.
¹⁰ The fields are ruined, the ground is grieving;
for the grain is ruined, the new wine dried up,
and the olive oil is wretched.
¹¹ Despair, you farmers; lament, vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley —
the harvest from the fields is lost.
¹² The vines have withered, the fig trees wilted,
also the pomegranate, date-palm and apple tree —
all the trees in the fields have withered,
and the people’s joy has withered away.
¹³ Cohanim, put on sackcloth, and weep!
Wail, you who serve at the altar!
Come, lie in sackcloth all night long,
you who serve my God!
For the grain offering and drink offering are withheld
from the house of your God.
¹⁴ Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly,
gather the leaders
and all who live in the land
to the house of Adonai your God,
and cry out to Adonai,

¹⁵ “Oh no! The Day!
The Day of Adonai is upon us!
As destruction from Shaddai
it is coming!
¹⁶ The food is cut off before our very eyes,
also joy and gladness from the house of our God.
¹⁷ The seed-grain is rotting in its furrows;
the granaries are deserted, the barns in ruins;
because the grain has withered.
¹⁸ How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep bear the punishment, too.
¹⁹ Adonai, I cry out to you!
For the fire has consumed the pastures in the desert,
and the flame set ablaze all the trees in the fields.
²⁰ Even the wild animals
come to you, panting,
because the streambeds have dried up,
and fire has consumed the pastures in the desert.”