Daily Reading for Saturday, July 20th, 2024

Reading 1, Micah 2:1-5

¹ Disaster for those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it, since they have the power to do so.

² Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they seize alike, the man himself as well as his inheritance.

³ So Yahweh says this: Look, I am now plotting a disaster for this breed from which you will not extricate your necks; you will not hold your heads up then, for the times will be disastrous indeed.

⁴ That day they will make a satire on you, they will strike up a dirge and say, 'We have been stripped of everything; my people's land has been divided up, no one else can restore it to them, our fields have been awarded to our despoiler.'

⁵ Because of this, you will have no one to measure out a share in Yahweh's community.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 10:1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 14

¹ Why, Yahweh, do you keep so distant, stay hidden in times of trouble?

² In his pride the wicked hunts down the weak, who is caught in the schemes he devises.

³ The wicked is proud of his inmost desires, by his blasphemies the grasping spurns Yahweh,

⁴ the wicked in his arrogance does not look very far; 'There is no God,' is his only thought.

⁷ he wishes it on others. His speech is full of lies and browbeating, under his tongue lurk spite and wickedness.

⁸ In the undergrowth he lies in ambush, in his hiding-place he murders the innocent. He watches intently for the downtrodden,

¹⁴ You have seen for yourself the trouble and vexation, you watch so as to take it in hand. The oppressed relies on you; you are the only recourse of the orphan.