Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ You turn people back to dust,
    saying, “Go back to the dust, children of Adam.”
⁴ For You a thousand years is like a day when it is over,
    a watch during the night;
    there is no difference to You.

^5-6 You release the waters of death to sweep mankind away in his slumber.
    In the morning, we are blades of grass,
Growing rapidly under the sun but withering quickly;
    yet in the evening, we fade and die, soon to be cut down.

⁷ For Your anger has consumed us.
    Your wrath has shaken us to the core
    and left us deeply troubled.
⁸ You have written our offenses before You—
    the light of Your presence shines brightly on our secret sins,
    and we can’t run or hide.

⁹ For all our days are spent beneath Your wrath;
    our youth gives way to old age, and then
    one day our years come to an end with a sigh.
¹⁰ We may journey through life for 70 years;
    some may live and breathe 80 years—if we are strong.
Yet our time here is only toil and trouble;
    soon our days are gone, and we fly away.
¹¹ Who can truly comprehend the power unleashed by Your anger?
    Your wrath matches the fear that is due to You.

¹⁰     Look, the day is here! It has arrived!
        Your doom has erupted.
    The rod has budded; conceit has blossomed!
¹¹     The consequence—violence—has grown up into a rod to punish the wicked;
        no one will be left, not one of the many!
    No wealth, no valuables will be left from this doomsday.
¹²     The time has arrived; the day is now.
    Buyer, don’t celebrate; seller, don’t grieve,
        for My anger will come to burn all of you!
¹³     The seller won’t regain his treasures while they both live;
        for the vision has to do with everyone, and no one will escape My wrath!
    Because of each person’s iniquity,
        no one will be able to hold onto his life.

¹⁴     Though the trumpet will sound to get everything ready,
        no troops will march into battle
        because My wrath is against all the people of Jerusalem.
¹⁵     The sword falls on anyone outside the city;
        disease and famine ravage those who remain inside.
    Those in the open will die by the sword;
        those inside the city walls will be consumed by famine and disease.
¹⁶     The survivors will run for the mountains
        and moan like doves because of their sins.
¹⁷     Every hand will go weak and limp;
        every knee will turn to water.
¹⁸     They will dress in sackcloth,
        and horror will cover them.
    Their faces will be plastered with shame,
        and their heads will be shaved.
¹⁹     They will throw their silver into the streets
        and treat their gold as impure, worthless,
    Once they discover their silver and gold cannot rescue them
        on the day the Eternal ignites His fierce anger.
    They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their bellies with their riches,
        for their earthly riches are what made them stumble into sin.
²⁰     They took pride in their attractive jewelry
        and constructed breathless idols and disgusting images with it.
    Therefore, I will make their riches impure and disgusting to them.
²¹     I will give their religious rubbish away to strangers
        as the wicked marauders of the earth loot and defile their treasures.
²²     I will turn My head
        so they may desecrate My treasured place;
    Pillagers will enter into it, profane it, and vandalize it.

²³     Forge a chain,
        for the land is soaked in blood and violence,
    And the city is brimming with brutality!
²⁴     I will stir up the very worst of the nations
        to take possession of their houses.
    I will put an end to the strong ones’ pride,
        and their most sacred sites will be desecrated.
²⁵     When the horror of My wrath comes, they will look for a calm place,
        but there will be nothing but torrential terror.
²⁶     One disaster after another will hit them;
        one bad report after another will come to them.
    Then they will seek a vision from any prophet,
        but no instruction in the law from the priest
        and no wise counsel from the elders will be found.
²⁷     The king will grieve,
        the prince will wrap himself in despair,
        and the hands of the common people will tremble.
    I will deal with them according to the way they dealt with others;
        I will judge them according to way they judged others.