Daily Reading for Wednesday, July 17th, 2024

Reading 1, Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16

⁵ Woe to Assyria, rod of my anger, the club in their hands is my fury!

⁶ I was sending him against a godless nation, commissioning him against the people who enraged me, to pillage and plunder at will and trample on them like the mud in the streets.

⁷ But this was not his intention nor did his heart plan it so, for he dreamed of putting an end to them, of liquidating nations without number!

¹³ For he thinks: 'By the strength of my own arm I have done this and by my own wisdom: how intelligent I have been! I have abolished the frontiers between peoples, I have plundered their treasures, like a hero, I have subjugated their inhabitants.

¹⁴ My hand has found, as though a bird's nest, the riches of the peoples. Like someone collecting deserted eggs, I have collected the whole world while no one has fluttered a wing or opened a beak to squawk.'

¹⁵ Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it, or the saw more strength than the man who handles it? As though a staff controlled those who raise it, or the club could raise what is not made of wood!

¹⁶ That is why Yahweh Sabaoth is going to inflict leanness on his stout men, and beneath his glory kindle a fever burning like a fire.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15

⁵ They crush your people, Yahweh, they oppress your heritage,

⁶ they murder the widow and the stranger, bring the orphan to a violent death.

⁷ They say, 'Yahweh is not looking, the God of Jacob is taking no notice.'

⁸ Take notice yourselves, you coarsest of people! Fools, when will you learn some sense?

⁹ Shall he who implanted the ear not hear, he who fashioned the eye not see?

¹⁰ Shall he who instructs nations not punish? Yahweh, the teacher of all people,

¹⁴ Yahweh will not abandon his people, he will not desert his heritage;

¹⁵ for judgement will again become saving justice, and in its wake all upright hearts will follow.

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