OLD TESTAMENT (Second Reading)

A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

The way of the just is smooth;

     the path of the just you make level.

The course of your judgments, LORD, we await;

     your name and your memory 

     are the desire of our souls.

My soul yearns for you at night,

     yes, my spirit within me seeks you at dawn;

     when your judgment comes upon the earth,

     the world’s inhabitants learn justice.

The wicked, when spared, do not learn justice;

     in an upright land they act perversely,

     and do not see the majesty of the LORD.

LORD, your hand is raised high,

     but they do not perceive it;

     let them be put to shame 

     when they see your zeal for your people:

     let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.

LORD, you will decree peace for us,

     for you have accomplished all we have done.

LORD, our God, lords other than you have ruled us;

     only because of you can we call upon your name.

Dead they are, they cannot live,

     shades that cannot rise;

     indeed, you have punished and destroyed them,

     and wiped out all memory of them.

You have increased the nation, LORD,

     you have increased the nation, 

     have added to your glory,

     you have extended far all the boundaries of the land.

LORD, oppressed by your punishment,

     we cried out in anguish under your discipline.

As a woman about to give birth

     writhes and cries out in pain,

     so were we before you, LORD.

We conceived and writhed in pain,

     giving birth only to wind;

     salvation we have not achieved for the earth,

     no inhabitants for the world were born.

But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise!

Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust!

For your dew is a dew of light,

     and you cause the land of shades to give birth.

The Word of the Lord