Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer of a Good Man

26 O Lord, stand by me for I have lived my life without blame. I have trusted in the Lord without changing. ² Test me and try me, O Lord. Test my mind and my heart. ³ For Your loving-kindness is always in front of my eyes. And I have walked in Your truth. ⁴ I do not sit with men who lie about the truth. I would not be seen with those who pretend to be someone they are not. ⁵ I hate the meeting of sinners, and will not sit with the sinful. ⁶ I will wash my hands of any guilt. And I will go around Your altar, O Lord. ⁷ I will speak with the voice of thanks, and tell of all Your great works.

⁸ O Lord, I love the house where You live, the place where Your shining-greatness lives.

Troubles for Judah

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with these people. Send them away from Me and let them go! ² And when they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ then tell them, ‘The Lord says, “Those who are to die, to death, and those who are to be killed by the sword, to the sword. Those who are to go hungry, to hunger, and those who are to be taken away as prisoners, to be taken away.’ ³ I will set over them four kinds of destroyers,” says the Lord: “The sword to kill, the dogs to take away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth to eat and destroy. ⁴ I will make them an object of much fear and hate among all the nations of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will have sorrow for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your well-being? ⁶ You have turned away from Me,” says the Lord. “You keep going back into sin. So I will put out My hand against you and destroy you. I am tired of having pity on you! ⁷ I will throw them to the wind like straw at the gates of the land. I will take their children from them. I will destroy My people. For they did not turn from their ways. ⁸ Their women whose husbands have died will be as many as the sand of the seas. At noon I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of young men. I will bring suffering and fear to them all at once. ⁹ She who gave birth to seven sons will become weak and die. Her sun will set while it is still day, and she will be put to shame. I will give the rest of them to the sword in front of those who hate them,” says the Lord.

⁷ For the secret power of breaking the law is already at work in the world. But that secret power can only do so much until the One Who keeps back the man of sin is taken out of the way. ⁸ Then this man of sin will come. The Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of His mouth. The coming of Christ will put an end to him. ⁹ Satan will use this man of sin. He will have Satan’s power. He will do strange things and many powerful works that will be false. ¹⁰ Those who are lost in sin will be fooled by the things he can do. They are lost in sin because they did not love the truth that would save them. ¹¹ For this reason, God will allow them to follow false teaching so they will believe a lie. ¹² They will all be guilty as they stand before God because they wanted to do what was wrong.