Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

24 And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, saying:

² Son of man, write thee the name of this day, on which the king of Babylon hath set himself against Jerusalem to day.

³ And thou shalt speak by a figure a parable to the provoking house, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Set on a pot, set it on, I say, and put water into it.

⁴ Heap together into it the pieces thereof, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder, choice pieces and full of bones.

⁵ Take the fattest of the flock, and lay together piles of bones under it: the seething thereof is boiling hot, and the bones thereof are thoroughly sodden in the midst of it.

⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust is not gone out of it: cast it out piece by piece, there hath no lot fallen upon it.

⁷ For her blood is in the midst of her, she hath shed it upon the smooth rock: she hath not shed it upon the ground, that it might be covered with dust.

⁸ And that I might bring my indignation upon her, and take my vengeance: I have shed her blood upon the smooth rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, of which I will make a great bonfire.

¹⁰ Heap together the bones, which I will burn with fire: the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole composition shall be sodden, and the bones shall be consumed.

¹¹ Then set it empty upon burning coals, that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may be melted: and let the filth of it be melted in the midst thereof, and let the rust of it be consumed.

¹² Great pains have been taken, and the great rust thereof is not gone out, not even by fire.

¹³ Thy uncleanness is execrable: because I desired to cleanse thee, and thou art not cleansed from thy filthiness: neither shalt thou be cleansed, before I cause my indignation to rest in thee.

¹⁴ I the Lord have spoken: it shall come to pass, and I will do it: I will not pass by, nor spare, nor be pacified: I will judge thee according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, saith the Lord.

¹¹ I am become foolish: you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you: for I have no way come short of them that are above measure apostles, although I be nothing.

¹² Yet the signs of my apostleship have been wrought on you, in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

¹³ For what is there that you have had less than the other churches, but that I myself was not burthensome to you? Pardon me this injury.

¹⁴ Behold now the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burthensome unto you. For I seek not the things that are yours, but you. For neither ought the children to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵ But I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls; although loving you more, I be loved less.

¹⁶ But be it so: I did not burthen you: but being crafty, I caught you by guile.

¹⁷ Did I overreach you by any of them whom I sent to you?

¹⁸ I desired Titus, and I sent with him a brother. Did Titus overreach you? Did we not walk with the same spirit? did we not in the same steps?

¹⁹ Of old, think you that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ; but all things, my dearly beloved, for your edification.

²⁰ For I fear lest perhaps when I come I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found by you such as you would not. Lest perhaps contentions, envyings, animosities, dissensions, detractions, whisperings, swellings, seditions, be among you.

²¹ Lest again, when I come, God humble me among you: and I mourn many of them that sinned before, and have not done penance for the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness, that they have committed.