Psalm 84:1–4, 8–12

1How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

3Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
4Blessèd are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise!

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
9Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!

10For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12O Lord of hosts,
blessèd is the one who trusts in you!

Old Testament Reading Job 16

1Then Job answered and said:

2“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
8And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
11God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
13his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
14He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
16My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
17although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18“O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
20My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
22For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.”

New Testament Reading John 7:1–13

1After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5For not even his brothers believed in him. 6Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

10But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.