Book of Common Prayer

55 Listen to my prayer, O God; don’t hide yourself when I cry to you. ² Hear me, Lord! Listen to me! For I groan and weep beneath my burden of woe.

³ My enemies shout against me and threaten me with death. They surround me with terror and plot to kill me. Their fury and hatred rise to engulf me. ⁴ My heart is in anguish within me. Stark fear overpowers me. ⁵ Trembling and horror overwhelm me. ⁶ Oh, for wings like a dove, to fly away and rest! ⁷ I would fly to the far-off deserts and stay there. ⁸ I would flee to some refuge from all this storm.

⁹ O Lord, make these enemies begin to quarrel among themselves—destroy them with their own violence and strife.^{[a] 10} Though they patrol their walls night and day against invaders, their real problem is internal—wickedness and dishonesty are entrenched in the heart of the city. ¹¹ There is murder and robbery there, and cheating in the markets and wherever you look.

¹² It was not an enemy who taunted me—then I could have borne it; I could have hidden and escaped. ¹³ But it was you, a man like myself, my companion and my friend. ¹⁴ What fellowship we had, what wonderful discussions as we walked together to the Temple of the Lord on holy days.

¹⁵ Let death seize them and cut them down in their prime, for there is sin in their homes, and they are polluted to the depths of their souls.

¹⁶ But I will call upon the Lord to save me—and he will. ¹⁷ I will pray morning, noon, and night, pleading aloud with God; and he will hear and answer. ¹⁸ Though the tide of battle runs strongly against me, for so many are fighting me, yet he will rescue me. ¹⁹ God himself—God from everlasting ages past—will answer them! For they refuse to fear him or even honor his commands.

²⁰ This friend of mine betrayed me—I who was at peace with him. He broke his promises. ²¹ His words were oily smooth, but in his heart was war. His words were sweet, but underneath were daggers.

²² Give your burdens to the Lord. He will carry them. He will not permit the godly to slip or fall. ²³ He will send my enemies to the pit of destruction. Murderers and liars will not live out half their days. But I am trusting you to save me.

74 O God, why have you cast us away forever? Why is your anger hot against us—the sheep of your own pasture? ² Remember that we are your people—the ones you chose in ancient times from slavery and made the choicest of your possessions. You chose Jerusalem^[a] as your home on earth!

³ Walk through the awful ruins of the city and see what the enemy has done to your sanctuary. ⁴ There they shouted their battle cry and erected their idols to flaunt their victory. ^5-6 Everything lies in shambles like a forest chopped to the ground. They came with their axes and sledgehammers and smashed and chopped the carved paneling; ⁷ they set the sanctuary on fire, and razed it to the ground—your sanctuary, Lord. ⁸ “Let’s wipe out every trace of God,” they said, and went through the entire country burning down the assembly places where we worshiped you.

^9-10 There is nothing left to show that we are your people. The prophets are gone, and who can say when it all will end? How long, O God, will you allow our enemies to dishonor your name? Will you let them get away with this forever? ¹¹ Why do you delay? Why hold back your power? Unleash your fist and give them a final blow.

¹² God is my King from ages past; you have been actively helping me everywhere throughout the land. ^13-14 You divided the Red Sea with your strength; you crushed the sea god’s heads! You gave him to the desert tribes to eat! ¹⁵ At your command the springs burst forth to give your people water; and then you dried a path for them across the ever-flowing Jordan. ¹⁶ Day and night alike belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. ¹⁷ All nature is within your hands; you make the summer and the winter too. ¹⁸ Lord, see how these enemies scoff at you. O Jehovah, an arrogant nation has blasphemed your name.

¹⁹ O Lord, save me! Protect your turtledove from the hawks.^[b] Save your beloved people from these beasts. ²⁰ Remember your promise! For the land is full of darkness and cruel men. ²¹ O Lord, don’t let your downtrodden people be constantly insulted. Give cause for these poor and needy ones to praise your name! ²² Arise, O God, and state your case against our enemies. Remember the insults these rebels have hurled against you all day long. ²³ Don’t overlook the cursing of these enemies of yours; it grows louder and louder.

2 A cloud of anger from the Lord has overcast Jerusalem; the fairest city of Israel lies in the dust of the earth, cast from the heights of heaven at his command. In his day of awesome fury he has shown no mercy even to his Temple.^[a]

² The Lord without mercy has destroyed every home in Israel. In his wrath he has broken every fortress, every wall. He has brought the kingdom to dust, with all its rulers.

³ All the strength of Israel vanishes beneath his wrath. He has withdrawn his protection as the enemy attacks. God burns across the land of Israel like a raging fire.

⁴ He bends his bow against his people as though he were an enemy. His strength is used against them to kill their finest youth. His fury is poured out like fire upon them.

⁵ Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel like an enemy. He has destroyed her forts and palaces. Sorrows and tears are his portion for Jerusalem.

⁶ He has violently broken down his Temple as though it were a booth of leaves and branches in a garden! No longer can the people celebrate their holy feasts and Sabbaths. Kings and priests together fall before his wrath.

⁷ The Lord has rejected his own altar, for he despises the false “worship” of his people; he has given their palaces to their enemies, who carouse in the Temple as Israel used to do on days of holy feasts!

⁸ The Lord determined to destroy Jerusalem. He laid out an unalterable line of destruction. Therefore the ramparts and walls fell down before him.

⁹ Jerusalem’s gates are useless. All their locks and bars are broken, for he has crushed them. Her kings and princes are enslaved in far-off lands, without a temple, without a divine law to govern them or prophetic vision to guide them.

¹⁴ Your “prophets” have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They have not tried to hold you back from slavery by pointing out your sins. They lied and said that all was well.

¹⁵ All who pass by scoff and shake their heads and say, “Is this the city called ‘Most Beautiful in All the World,’ and ‘Joy of All the Earth’?”

¹⁶ All your enemies deride you. They hiss and grind their teeth and say, “We have destroyed her at last! Long have we waited for this hour, and it is finally here! With our own eyes we’ve seen her fall.”

¹⁷ But it is the Lord who did it, just as he had warned. He has fulfilled the promises of doom he made so long ago. He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy and caused her enemies to rejoice over her and boast of their power.

²³ I call upon this God to witness against me if I am not telling the absolute truth: the reason I haven’t come to visit you yet is that I don’t want to sadden you with a severe rebuke. ²⁴ When I come, although I can’t do much to help your faith, for it is strong already, I want to be able to do something about your joy: I want to make you happy, not sad.

2 “No,” I said to myself, “I won’t do it. I’ll not make them unhappy with another painful visit.” ² For if I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? You are the ones to do it, and how can you if I cause you pain? ³ That is why I wrote as I did in my last letter, so that you will get things straightened out before I come.^[a] Then, when I do come, I will not be made sad by the very ones who ought to give me greatest joy. I felt sure that your happiness was so bound up in mine that you would not be happy either unless I came with joy.

⁴ Oh, how I hated to write that letter! It almost broke my heart, and I tell you honestly that I cried over it. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I had to show you how very much I loved you and cared about what was happening to you.

^5-6 Remember that the man I wrote about, who caused all the trouble, has not caused sorrow to me as much as to all the rest of you—though I certainly have my share in it too. I don’t want to be harder on him than I should. He has been punished enough by your united disapproval. ⁷ Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so bitter and discouraged that he won’t be able to recover. ⁸ Please show him now that you still do love him very much.

⁹ I wrote to you as I did so that I could find out how far you would go in obeying me. ¹⁰ When you forgive anyone, I do too. And whatever I have forgiven (to the extent that this affected me too) has been by Christ’s authority, and for your good. ¹¹ A further reason for forgiveness is to keep from being outsmarted by Satan, for we know what he is trying to do.

12 Here are some of the story-illustrations Jesus gave to the people at that time:

“A man planted a vineyard and built a wall around it and dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a watchman’s tower. Then he leased the farm to tenant farmers and moved to another country. ² At grape-picking time he sent one of his men to collect his share of the crop. ³ But the farmers beat up the man and sent him back empty-handed.

⁴ “The owner then sent another of his men, who received the same treatment, only worse, for his head was seriously injured. ⁵ The next man he sent was killed; and later, others were either beaten or killed, until ⁶ there was only one left—his only son. He finally sent him, thinking they would surely give him their full respect.

⁷ “But when the farmers saw him coming they said, ‘He will own the farm when his father dies. Come on, let’s kill him—and then the farm will be ours!’ ⁸ So they caught him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What do you suppose the owner will do when he hears what happened? He will come and kill them all, and lease the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Don’t you remember reading this verse in the Scriptures? ‘The Rock the builders threw away became the cornerstone, the most honored stone in the building! ¹¹ This is the Lord’s doing and it is an amazing thing to see.’”