Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³³ HE. Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of thy statutes, and I will observe it [unto] the end.

³⁴ Give me understanding, and I will observe thy law; and I will keep it with [my] whole heart.

³⁵ Make me to walk in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

³⁶ Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to gain.

³⁷ Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; quicken me in thy way.

³⁸ Establish thy word unto thy servant, who is [devoted] to thy fear.

³⁹ Turn away my reproach which I fear; for thy judgments are good.

⁴⁰ Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

24 And in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, write thee the name of the day, of this selfsame day: on this selfsame day the king of Babylon draws near to Jerusalem.

³ And propose a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Set on the pot, set [it] on, and also pour water into it.

⁴ Gather the pieces thereof into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder; fill [it] with the choice bones:

⁵ take the choice of the flock; and also [put] a pile of wood under it, for the bones; make it boil well, and let the bones of it seethe therein.

⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! Bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it:

⁷ for her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸ That it might cause fury to come up to execute vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

¹⁰ Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, boil thoroughly the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹ Then set it empty upon its coals, that it may be hot, and the brass of it may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, [and] that its rust may be consumed.

¹² She hath exhausted [her] labours, yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her: let her rust be in the fire.

¹³ In thy filthiness is lewdness, for I have purged thee, and thou art not pure. Thou shalt no more be purged from thy filthiness, till I have satisfied my fury upon thee.

¹⁴ I Jehovah have spoken [it]: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, nor will I repent. According to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹¹ I have become a fool; *ye* have compelled me; for *I* ought to have been commended by you; for I have been nothing behind those who were in surpassing degree apostles, if also I am nothing.

¹² The signs indeed of the apostle were wrought among you in all endurance, signs, and wonders, and works of power.

¹³ For in what is it that ye have been inferior to the other assemblies, unless that I myself have not been in laziness a charge upon you? Forgive me this injury.

¹⁴ Behold, this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be in laziness a charge; for I do not seek yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵ Now *I* shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved.

¹⁶ But be it so. *I* did not burden you, but being crafty I took you by guile.

¹⁷ Did I make gain of you by any of those whom I have sent to you?

¹⁸ I begged Titus, and sent the brother with [him]: did Titus at all make gain of you? have we not walked in the same spirit? [have we] not in the same steps?

¹⁹ Ye have long been supposing that we excuse ourselves to you: we speak before God in Christ; and all things, beloved, for your building up.

²⁰ For I fear lest perhaps coming I find you not such as I wish, and that *I* be found by you such as ye do not wish: lest [there might be] strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings, puffings up, disturbances;

²¹ lest my God should humble me as to you when I come again, and that I shall grieve over many of those who have sinned before, and have not repented as to the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have practised.