August 7

79:1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
 they have defiled your holy temple;
 they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
 to the birds of the heavens for food,
 the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
 all around Jerusalem,
 and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
 mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
 Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
 that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
 that do not call upon your name!
7 For they have devoured Jacob
 and laid waste his habitation.

8 Do not remember against us our former iniquities; [1]
 let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
 for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation,
 for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
 for your name’s sake!
10 Why should the nations say,
 “Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
 be known among the nations before our eyes!

11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
 according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
12 Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
 the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
 will give thanks to you forever;
 from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
 you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
 and come to save us!

3 Restore us, [2] O God;
 let your face shine, that we may be saved!

4 O Lord God of hosts,
 how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears
 and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
 and our enemies laugh among themselves.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
 let your face shine, that we may be saved!

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
 you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
 it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
 the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea
 and its shoots to the River. [3]
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
 so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
 and all that move in the field feed on it.

14 Turn again, O God of hosts!
 Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
 15 the stock that your right hand planted,
 and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
 may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
 the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18 Then we shall not turn back from you;
 give us life, and we will call upon your name!

19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
 Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

81:1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
 shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
 the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
 at the full moon, on our feast day.

4 For it is a statute for Israel,
 a rule [5] of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
 when he went out over [6] the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
6 “I relieved your [7] shoulder of the burden;
 your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;
 I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
 I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
 O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
 you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
 who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
 Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
 Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
 to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
 that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
 and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
 and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you [8] with the finest of the wheat,
 and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”