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Psalm 22

1  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, ♦︎
   and are so far from my salvation,
      from the words of my distress?
2  O my God, I cry in the daytime,
      but you do not answer; ♦︎
   and by night also, but I find no rest.
3  Yet you are the Holy One, ♦︎
   enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4  Our forebears trusted in you; ♦︎
   they trusted, and you delivered them.
5  They cried out to you and were delivered; ♦︎
   they put their trust in you and were not confounded.
6  But as for me, I am a worm and no man, ♦︎
   scorned by all and despised by the people.
7  All who see me laugh me to scorn; ♦︎
   they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,
8  ‘He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; ♦︎
   let him deliver him, if he delights in him.’
9  But it is you that took me out of the womb ♦︎
   and laid me safe upon my mother’s breast.
10  On you was I cast ever since I was born; ♦︎
   you are my God even from my mother’s womb.
11  Be not far from me, for trouble is near at hand ♦︎
   and there is none to help.
12  Mighty oxen come around me; ♦︎
   fat bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.
13  They gape upon me with their mouths, ♦︎
   as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.
14  I am poured out like water;
      all my bones are out of joint; ♦︎
   my heart has become like wax
      melting in the depths of my body.
15  My mouth is dried up like a potsherd;
      my tongue cleaves to my gums; ♦︎
   you have laid me in the dust of death.

Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

20Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
² ‘Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer,
   because of the agitation within me.
³ I hear censure that insults me,
   and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
⁴ Do you not know this from of old,
   ever since mortals were placed on earth,
⁵ that the exulting of the wicked is short,
   and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
⁶ Even though they mount up high as the heavens,
   and their head reaches to the clouds,
⁷ they will perish for ever like their own dung;
   those who have seen them will say, “Where are they?”
⁸ They will fly away like a dream, and not be found;
   they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye that saw them will see them no more,
   nor will their place behold them any longer.
¹⁰ Their children will seek the favour of the poor,
   and their hands will give back their wealth.
¹¹ Their bodies, once full of youth,
   will lie down in the dust with them.

¹² ‘Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,
   though they hide it under their tongues,
¹³ though they are loath to let it go,
   and hold it in their mouths,
¹⁴ yet their food is turned in their stomachs;
   it is the venom of asps within them.
¹⁵ They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;
   God casts them out of their bellies.
¹⁶ They will suck the poison of asps;
   the tongue of a viper will kill them.
¹⁷ They will not look on the rivers,
   the streams flowing with honey and curds.
¹⁸ They will give back the fruit of their toil,
   and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of their trading
   they will get no enjoyment.
¹⁹ For they have crushed and abandoned the poor,
   they have seized a house that they did not build.

²⁰ ‘They knew no quiet in their bellies;
   in their greed they let nothing escape.
²¹ There was nothing left after they had eaten;
   therefore their prosperity will not endure.
²² In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
   all the force of misery will come upon them.
²³ To fill their belly to the full
   God^* will send his fierce anger into them,
   and rain it upon them as their food.^*
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
   a bronze arrow will strike them through.
²⁵ It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
   and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
   terrors come upon them.
²⁶ Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
   a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
   what is left in their tent will be consumed.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
   and the earth will rise up against them.
²⁸ The possessions of their house will be carried away,
   dragged off on the day of God’s^* wrath.
²⁹ This is the portion of the wicked from God,
   the heritage decreed for them by God.’

The Tradition of the Elders

15Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ ³He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God said,^* “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” ⁵But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”,^* then that person need not honour the father.^{* 6}So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word^* of God. ⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
⁸ “This people honours me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me;
⁹ in vain do they worship me,
   teaching human precepts as doctrines.” ’