Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
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33 Lord, teach me what your statutes are about,
and I will guard every part of them.
34 Help me understand so I can guard your Instruction
and keep it with all my heart.
35 Lead me on the trail of your commandments
because that is what I want.
36 Turn my heart to your laws,
not to greedy gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things.
Make me live by your way.
38 Confirm your promise to your servant—
the promise that is for all those who honor you.
39 Remove the insults that I dread
because your rules are good.
40 Look how I desire your precepts!
Make me live by your righteousness.
The useless pot
24 In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the Lord’s word came to me: 2 Human one, write down today’s date, because today the king of Babylon has set up camp at Jerusalem—today! 3 Compose a parable for the rebels’ household and say to them, The Lord God proclaims:
Put on the pot, set it on,
and fill it with water.
4 Add meat to it,
every good piece.
With shoulder and thigh,
the meatiest bones, fill it up.
5 Take the flock’s best animal;
arrange the wood[a] beneath it.
Bring it to a rolling boil,
and cook its bones in it.
6 The Lord God proclaims: Horror! You bloody city, you corroded pot; pot whose corrosion can’t be removed! Empty it piece by piece. She is rejected[b] 7 because her blood is still with her. She didn’t pour it out on the ground so that it could be covered with dirt, but she spread it out on a bare rock. 8 In order to arouse wrath, to guarantee vengeance, I will spread her blood on a bare rock, never to be covered.
9 So now the Lord God proclaims:
Horror! You bloody city!
I myself will add fuel to the fire!
10 Pile on the wood, light the fire, and cook the meat.
Season it well and let the bones be charred.
11 Let the pot stand empty on its coals
until it’s so hot that its copper glows,
its impurities melt in it,
and its corrosion is consumed.
12 It’s a worthless task.
Even by fire its great corrosion isn’t removed.
13 How your betrayals defile you! I cleansed you, but you didn’t come clean from your impurities. You won’t be clean again until I have exhausted my anger against you. 14 I, the Lord, have spoken! It’s coming, and I’ll do it. I won’t relent or have any pity or compassion. Your punishments will fit your ways and your deeds! This is what the Lord God says.
11 I’ve become a fool! You made me do it. Actually, I should have been commended by you. I’m not inferior to the super-apostles in any way, even though I’m a nonentity. 12 The signs of an apostle were performed among you with continuous endurance through signs, wonders, and miracles. 13 How were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself wasn’t a financial burden on you? Forgive me for this wrong!
Paul’s plans to visit and a warning
14 Look, I’m ready to visit you a third time, and I won’t be a burden on you. I don’t want your things; I want you. It isn’t the children’s responsibility to save up for their parents but parents for children. 15 I will very gladly spend and be spent for your sake. If I love you more, will you love me less?
16 We all know that I didn’t place a burden on you, but in spite of that you think I’m a con artist who fooled you with a trick. 17 I haven’t taken advantage of you through any of the people I sent to you, have I? 18 I strongly encouraged Titus to go to you and sent the brother with him. Titus didn’t take advantage of you, did he? Didn’t we live by the same Spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same footsteps?
19 Have you been thinking up to now that we are defending ourselves to you? Actually, we are speaking in the sight of God and in Christ. Dear friends, everything is meant to build you up. 20 I’m afraid that maybe when I come you will be different from the way I want you to be, and that I’ll be different from the way you want me to be. I’m afraid that there might be fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly conduct. 21 I’m afraid that when I come again, my God may embarrass me in front of you. I might have to go into mourning over all the people who have sinned before and haven’t changed their hearts and lives from what they used to practice: moral corruption, sexual immorality, and doing whatever feels good.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible