Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

131 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself with great matters, or in things too high for me.

² Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned from his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.

³ Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.

27 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

² Thus saith the Lord to me: “Make thee bonds and yokes and put them upon thy neck,

³ and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴ And command them to say unto their masters, ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; thus shall ye say unto your masters:

⁵ I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me.

⁶ And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

⁷ And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son’s son, until the very time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall themselves be served by him.

⁸ And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

⁹ Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, who speak unto you, saying, “Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon.”

¹⁰ For they prophesy a lie unto you to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and ye should perish.

¹¹ But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and they shall till it and dwell therein.’”

¹⁶ Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets who prophesy unto you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon’; for they prophesy a lie unto you.

¹⁷ Hearken not unto them: serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city be laid waste?

¹⁸ But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem go not to Babylon.

¹⁹ For thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,

²⁰ which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem”

²¹ yea, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem:

²² ‘They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them,’ saith the Lord. ‘Then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.’”

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness,

¹⁹ because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them.

²⁰ For from the creation of the world the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

²¹ For when they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³ and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves.

²⁵ They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.