Lamentations 1:1-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Deserted City
1 How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become subject to forced labor.(A)
2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers,
she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.(B)
3 Judah has gone into exile with suffering
and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations;
she finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.(C)
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate;
her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,[a]
and her lot is bitter.(D)
5 Her foes have become the masters;
her enemies prosper
because the Lord has made her suffer
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.(E)
6 From daughter Zion has departed
all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.(F)
7 Jerusalem remembers[b] all the precious things
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy
and there was no one to help her,
the enemy looked on;
they mocked over her downfall.(G)
8 Jerusalem sinned grievously,
so she has become a filthy thing;
all who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
and turns her face away.(H)
9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
she took no thought of her future;
her downfall was appalling,
with none to comfort her.
Look, O Lord, at my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed!(I)
10 Enemies have stretched out their hands
over all her precious things;
she has even seen the nations
invade her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
to enter your congregation.(J)
11 All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
to revive their lives.
Look, O Lord, and see
how worthless I have become.(K)
12 Is it nothing to you,[c] all you who pass by?
Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which was brought upon me,
which the Lord inflicted
on the day of his fierce anger.(L)
13 From on high he sent fire;
it went deep into my bones;
he spread a net for my feet;
he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
faint all day long.(M)
14 My transgressions were bound[d] into a yoke;
by his hand they were fastened together;
they weigh on my neck,
sapping my strength;
the Lord handed me over
to those whom I cannot withstand.(N)
John 17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
17 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,(A) 2 since you have given him authority over all people,[a] to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.(B) 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.(C) 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.(D) 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.(E)
6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.(F) 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.(G) 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.(H) 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them.(I) 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.(J) 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that[b] you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,[c] so that the scripture might be fulfilled.(K) 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.[d] 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.(L) 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.[e](M) 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.(N) 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,[f] so that the world may believe that you have sent me.(O) 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,(P) 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.(Q)
25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me.(R) 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”(S)
Lamentations 3:1-33
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God’s Steadfast Love Endures
3 I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s[a] wrath;(A)
2 he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
3 against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.(B)
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;(C)
5 he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.(D)
7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has put heavy chains on me;(E)
8 though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;(F)
9 he has blocked my ways with hewn stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;(G)
11 he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me
as a mark for his arrow.(H)
13 He shot into my vitals
the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunt songs all day long.(I)
15 He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel;
he has made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 so I say, “Gone is my glory
and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”
19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!(J)
20 My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.(K)
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,[b]
his mercies never come to an end;(L)
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.(M)
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”(N)
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.(O)
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.(P)
27 It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,(Q)
28 to sit alone in silence
when the Lord[c] has imposed it,(R)
29 to put one’s mouth to the dust
(there may yet be hope),
30 to give one’s cheek to the smiter
and be filled with insults.(S)
31 For the Lord will not
reject forever.(T)
32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;(U)
33 for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve anyone.(V)
John 13:1-35
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
13 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.(A) 2 The devil had already decided[a] that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper(B) 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God,(C) 4 got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.(D) 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”(E) 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet,[b] but is entirely clean. And you[c] are clean, though not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”(F)
12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am.(G) 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.(H) 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.(I) 16 Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers[d] greater than the one who sent them.(J) 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread[e] has lifted his heel against me.’(K) 19 I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe that I am he.[f](L) 20 Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”(M)
Jesus Foretells His Betrayal
21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.”(N) 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23 One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining close to his heart;[g](O) 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”(P) 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”[h] So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.[i](Q) 27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.”(R) 28 Now no one knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
The New Commandment
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.(S) 32 If God has been glorified in him,[j] God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’(T) 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.(U) 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”(V)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 13.2 Gk put it into his heart
- 13.10 Other ancient authorities lack except for the feet
- 13.10 The Greek word for you here is plural
- 13.16 Or apostles
- 13.18 Other ancient authorities read ate bread with me
- 13.19 Gk I am
- 13.23 Gk bosom
- 13.26 Gk dipped it
- 13.26 Other ancient authorities read Judas Iscariot son of Simon or Judas son of Simon from Karyot (Kerioth)
- 13.32 Other ancient authorities lack If God has been glorified in him
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.