Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸¹ CAPH. My soul fainteth for thy salvation; I hope in thy word.

⁸² Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

⁸³ For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; I do not forget thy statutes.

⁸⁴ How many shall be the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

⁸⁵ The proud have digged pits for me, which is not according to thy law.

⁸⁶ All thy commandments are faithfulness. They persecute me wrongfully: help thou me.

⁸⁷ They had almost consumed me upon the earth; but as for me, I forsook not thy precepts.

⁸⁸ Quicken me according to thy loving-kindness, and I will keep the testimony of thy mouth.

16 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

² Thou shalt not take thee a wife, and thou shalt not have sons nor daughters in this place.

³ For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bear them, and concerning their fathers that beget them in this land:

⁴ They shall die of painful deaths; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carcases shall be food for the fowl of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ For thus saith Jehovah: Enter not into the house of wailing, neither go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith Jehovah, the loving-kindness and the tender mercies.

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried; and none shall lament for them, or cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

⁷ Nor shall they break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall they give them the cup of consolations to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

⁹ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt declare unto this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? and what is our iniquity? and what is our sin which we have committed against Jehovah our God?

¹¹ then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

¹² and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me:

¹³ and I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night: because I will shew you no favour.

⁷ Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive [the] early and [the] latter rain.

⁸ *Ye* also have patience: stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is drawn nigh.

⁹ Complain not one against another, brethren, that ye be not judged. Behold, the judge stands before the door.

¹⁰ Take [as] an example, brethren, of suffering and having patience, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of [the] Lord.

¹¹ Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful.

¹² But before all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, that ye do not fall under judgment.