Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸¹ My soul becomes weak with desire for Your saving power, but I have put my hope in Your Word. ⁸² My eyes become weak with desire for Your Word. I say, “When will You comfort me?” ⁸³ I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, but I do not forget Your Law. ⁸⁴ How long must Your servant wait? When will You punish those who make it hard for me? ⁸⁵ The proud have dug deep holes for me. They do not obey Your Law. ⁸⁶ All of Your Word is faithful. Help me! For they have made it hard for me with a lie. ⁸⁷ They almost destroyed me on the earth, but I did not turn away from Your Law. ⁸⁸ Give me life again by Your loving-kindness, and I will keep the Word of Your mouth.

16 The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Do not get married or have sons or daughters in this place.” ³ For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land, and about their mothers who give birth to them, and their fathers who gave them life in this land: ⁴ “They will die of bad diseases. No one will cry for them or bury them. They will be as animal waste on the ground, destroyed by sword and hunger. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the earth.”

⁵ For the Lord says, “Do not go into a house where the people have lost a loved one. Do not go to cry or to comfort them. For I have taken My peace, My loving-kindness and My pity from these people,” says the Lord. ⁶ “Both great men and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. No one will cry for them. And no one will cut himself or cut off his hair for them. ⁷ No one will give food to comfort those who sorrow for the dead. And no one will give them the cup of comfort to drink even for the death of their father or mother. ⁸ Do not go into a house where they are eating much and sit with them to eat and drink.” ⁹ For the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Before your eyes and in your time, I am going to bring an end to the voice of joy, the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride in this place.

¹⁰ “When you tell these people all these words, they will say to you, ‘Why has the Lord said all these bad things will happen to us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹ Then you tell them, ‘It is because your fathers before you have turned away from Me,’ says the Lord. ‘They have followed other gods and served them and worshiped them. But they have left Me and have not kept My Law. ¹² And you have sinned even more than your fathers before you. For see, each one of you is following the strong-will of his own sinful heart instead of listening to Me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land into a land which you and your fathers have not known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Come Again

⁷ Christian brothers, be willing to wait for the Lord to come again. Learn from the farmer. He waits for the good fruit from the earth until the early and late rains come. ⁸ You must be willing to wait also. Be strong in your hearts because the Lord is coming again soon. ⁹ Do not complain about each other, Christian brothers. Then you will not be judged. See! The Judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰ See how the early preachers spoke for the Lord by their suffering and by being willing to wait. ¹¹ We think of those who stayed true to Him as happy even though they suffered. You have heard how long Job waited. You have seen what the Lord did for him in the end. The Lord is full of loving-kindness and pity.

¹² My Christian brothers, do not swear. Do not use heaven or earth or anything else to swear by. If you mean yes, say yes. If you mean no, say no. You will be guilty for saying anything more.