Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ “Look at the nations!
    Watch them and be amazed and shocked.
I will do something in your lifetime
    that you won’t believe even when you are told about it.
⁶ I will use the Babylonians,
    those cruel and wild people
who march across the earth
    and take lands that don’t belong to them.
⁷ They scare and frighten people.
    They do what they want to do
    and are good only to themselves.
⁸ Their horses are faster than leopards
    and quicker than wolves at sunset.
Their horse soldiers attack quickly;
    they come from places far away.
They attack quickly, like an eagle swooping down for food.
⁹ They all come to fight.
Nothing can stop them.
    Their prisoners are as many as the grains of sand.
¹⁰ They laugh at kings
    and make fun of rulers.
They laugh at all the strong, walled cities
    and build dirt piles to the top of the walls to capture them.
¹¹ Then they leave like the wind and move on.
    They are guilty of worshiping their own strength.”

¹² Lord, you live forever,
    my God, my holy God.
    We will not die.
Lord, you have chosen the Babylonians to punish people;
    our Rock, you picked them to punish.
¹³ Your eyes are too good to look at evil;
    you cannot stand to see those who do wrong.
So how can you put up with those evil people?
    How can you be quiet when the wicked swallow up people who are better than they are?
¹⁴ You treat people like fish in the sea,
    like sea animals without a leader.
¹⁵ The enemy brings them in with hooks.
    He catches them in his net
and drags them in his fishnet.
    So he rejoices and sings for joy.
¹⁶ The enemy offers sacrifices to his net
    and burns incense to worship it,
because it lets him live like the rich
    and enjoy the best food.
¹⁷ Will he keep on taking riches with his net?
    Will he go on destroying people without showing mercy?