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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.
16  For the hounds are all about me,
      the pack of evildoers close in on me; ♦︎
   they pierce my hands and my feet.
17  I can count all my bones; ♦︎
   they stand staring and looking upon me.
18  They divide my garments among them; ♦︎
   they cast lots for my clothing.
19  Be not far from me, O Lord; ♦︎
   you are my strength; hasten to help me.
20  Deliver my soul from the sword, ♦︎
   my poor life from the power of the dog.
21  Save me from the lion’s mouth,
      from the horns of wild oxen. ♦︎
   You have answered me!
22  I will tell of your name to my people; ♦︎
   in the midst of the congregation will I praise you.
23  Praise the Lord, you that fear him; ♦︎
   O seed of Jacob, glorify him;
      stand in awe of him, O seed of Israel.
24  For he has not despised nor abhorred the suffering of the poor;
      neither has he hidden his face from them; ♦︎
   but when they cried to him he heard them.
25  From you comes my praise in the great congregation; ♦︎
   I will perform my vows
      in the presence of those that fear you.
26  The poor shall eat and be satisfied; ♦︎
   those who seek the Lord shall praise him;
      their hearts shall live for ever.
27  All the ends of the earth
      shall remember and turn to the Lord, ♦︎
   and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
28  For the kingdom is the Lord’s ♦︎
   and he rules over the nations.
29  How can those who sleep in the earth
      bow down in worship, ♦︎
   or those who go down to the dust kneel before him?
30  He has saved my life for himself;
      my descendants shall serve him; ♦︎
   this shall be told of the Lord for generations to come.
31  They shall come and make known his salvation,
      to a people yet unborn, ♦︎
   declaring that he, the Lord, has done it.

Aaron

⁶ He exalted Aaron, a holy man like Moses^*
   who was his brother, of the tribe of Levi.
⁷ He made an everlasting covenant with him,
   and gave him the priesthood of the people.
He blessed him with stateliness,
   and put a glorious robe on him.
⁸ He clothed him in perfect splendour,
   and strengthened him with the symbols of authority,
   the linen undergarments, the long robe, and the ephod.
⁹ And he encircled him with pomegranates,
   with many golden bells all round,
to send forth a sound as he walked,
   to make their ringing heard in the temple
   as a reminder to his people;
¹⁰ with the sacred vestment, of gold and violet
   and purple, the work of an embroiderer;
with the oracle of judgement, Urim and Thummim;
¹¹   with twisted crimson, the work of an artisan;
with precious stones engraved like seals,
   in a setting of gold, the work of a jeweller,
to commemorate in engraved letters
   each of the tribes of Israel;
¹² with a gold crown upon his turban,
   inscribed like a seal with ‘Holiness’,
a distinction to be prized, the work of an expert,
   a delight to the eyes, richly adorned.
¹³ Before him such beautiful things did not exist.
   No outsider ever put them on,
but only his sons
   and his descendants in perpetuity.
¹⁴ His sacrifices shall be wholly burned
   twice every day continually.
¹⁵ Moses ordained him,
   and anointed him with holy oil;
it was an everlasting covenant for him
   and for his descendants as long as the heavens endure,
to minister to the Lord^* and serve as priest
   and bless his people in his name.
¹⁶ He chose him out of all the living
   to offer sacrifice to the Lord,
incense and a pleasing odour as a memorial portion,
   to make atonement for the^* people.

Another Dream

² I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! my beloved is knocking.
‘Open to me, my sister, my love,
   my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
   my locks with the drops of the night.’
³ I had put off my garment;
   how could I put it on again?
I had bathed my feet;
   how could I soil them?
⁴ My beloved thrust his hand into the opening,
   and my inmost being yearned for him.
⁵ I arose to open to my beloved,
   and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
   upon the handles of the bolt.
⁶ I opened to my beloved,
   but my beloved had turned and was gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke.
I sought him, but did not find him;
   I called him, but he gave no answer.
⁷ Making their rounds in the city
   the sentinels found me;
they beat me, they wounded me,
   they took away my mantle,
   those sentinels of the walls.
⁸ I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
   if you find my beloved,
tell him this:
   I am faint with love.

6Where has your beloved gone,
   O fairest among women?
Which way has your beloved turned,
   that we may seek him with you?

² My beloved has gone down to his garden,
   to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens,
   and to gather lilies.
³ I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
   he pastures his flock among the lilies.

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’^*

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; ⁴⁶and he said, ‘It is written,
“My house shall be a house of prayer”;
   but you have made it a den of robbers.’

47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; ⁴⁸but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.