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The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication

⁴ The Lord God has given me
   the tongue of a teacher,^*
that I may know how to sustain
   the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
   wakens my ear
   to listen as those who are taught.
⁵ The Lord God has opened my ear,
   and I was not rebellious,
   I did not turn backwards.
⁶ I gave my back to those who struck me,
   and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
   from insult and spitting.

⁷ The Lord God helps me;
   therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
   and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
⁸   he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
   Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
   Let them confront me.
⁹ It is the Lord God who helps me;
   who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
   the moth will eat them up.

Psalm 69

Prayer for Deliverance from Persecution

To the leader: according to Lilies. Of David.
¹ Save me, O God,
   for the waters have come up to my neck.
² I sink in deep mire,
   where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
   and the flood sweeps over me.
³ I am weary with my crying;
   my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
   with waiting for my God.

⁴ More in number than the hairs of my head
   are those who hate me without cause;
many are those who would destroy me,
   my enemies who accuse me falsely.
What I did not steal
   must I now restore?
⁵ O God, you know my folly;
   the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶ Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me,
   O Lord God of hosts;
do not let those who seek you be dishonoured because of me,
   O God of Israel.
⁷ It is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
   that shame has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my kindred,
   an alien to my mother’s children.

⁹ It is zeal for your house that has consumed me;
   the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
¹⁰ When I humbled my soul with fasting,^*
   they insulted me for doing so.
¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
   I became a byword to them.
¹² I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate,
   and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³ But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
   At an acceptable time, O God,
   in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me.
With your faithful help ¹⁴rescue me
   from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
   and from the deep waters.
¹⁵ Do not let the flood sweep over me,
   or the deep swallow me up,
   or the Pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶ Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good;
   according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
¹⁷ Do not hide your face from your servant,
   for I am in distress—make haste to answer me.
¹⁸ Draw near to me, redeem me,
   set me free because of my enemies.

¹⁹ You know the insults I receive,
   and my shame and dishonour;
   my foes are all known to you.
²⁰ Insults have broken my heart,
   so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none;
   and for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They gave me poison for food,
   and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²² Let their table be a trap for them,
   a snare for their allies.
²³ Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
   and make their loins tremble continually.
²⁴ Pour out your indignation upon them,
   and let your burning anger overtake them.
²⁵ May their camp be a desolation;
   let no one live in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute those whom you have struck down,
   and those whom you have wounded, they attack still more.^*
27 Add guilt to their guilt;
   may they have no acquittal from you.
²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
   let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
²⁹ But I am lowly and in pain;
   let your salvation, O God, protect me.

³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song;
   I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ This will please the Lord more than an ox
   or a bull with horns and hoofs.
³² Let the oppressed see it and be glad;
   you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
³³ For the Lord hears the needy,
   and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,
   the seas and everything that moves in them.
³⁵ For God will save Zion
   and rebuild the cities of Judah;
and his servants shall live^* there and possess it;
³⁶   the children of his servants shall inherit it,
   and those who love his name shall live in it.

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

The Passover with the Disciples

17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ ¹⁸He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.” ’ ¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve;^{* 21}and while they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ ²²And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ ²³He answered, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. ²⁴The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’ ²⁵Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’