Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To You I Lift Up My Eyes

A Song of Ascents.

²⁷ “You shall ^(A)speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will ^(B)not answer you. ²⁸ You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that ^(C)did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; ^[a](D)truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares Yahweh, “they have ^(H)set their detestable things in the house, which is called by My name, to defile it. ³¹ They have ^(I)built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to ^(J)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I ^(K)did not command, and it did not come upon My heart.

³² “^(L)Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will ^(M)bury in Topheth ^[c]because there is no other place. ³³ The ^(N)dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. ³⁴ Then I will make to ^(O)cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the ^(P)land will become a waste place.

The Cost of Following Jesus

¹⁸ Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, ^(A)He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. ^19 (B)Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” ²⁰ And Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the ^[a]air have ^[b]nests, but ^(C)the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ²¹ And another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus *said to him, “^(D)Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”