Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

CAPH

⁸¹ My soul fainted for Your salvation, yet I wait for Your Word.

⁸² My eyes fail for Your Promise, saying, “When will You comfort me?”

⁸³ For though I am like a wineskin in a smokehouse, even so I do not forget Your Statutes.

⁸⁴ How many are the days of Your servant? When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?

⁸⁵ The proud have dug pits for me, which is not after Your Law.

⁸⁶ All Your Commandments are true. They persecute me falsely. Help me.

⁸⁷ They had almost consumed me upon the Earth, yet I do not forsake Your Precepts.

⁸⁸ Quicken me according to Your lovingkindness. So shall I keep the Testimony of Your Mouth.

16 The Word of the LORD came also to me, saying,

² “You shall neither take yourself a wife nor have sons or daughters in this place.”

³ For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land:

⁴ “They shall die of deaths and diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung upon the Earth. And they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine. And their carcasses shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵ For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter into the house of mourning, or go to lament, or be moved for them. For I have taken My Peace from this people,” says the LORD, “mercy and compassion.

⁶ “Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, nor shall men lament for them or cut themselves or make themselves bald for them.

⁷ “They shall not stretch out for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, nor shall they give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ “Also, you shall not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.”

⁹ For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, in your days, in your eyes, I will cause the voice of mirth to cease from this place, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ “And when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great plague against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

¹¹ “Then shall you say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD, ‘and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My Law,

¹² ‘and you have done worse than your fathers (for behold, each one walks after the stubbornness of his wicked heart and will not hear Me),

¹³ ‘therefore I will drive you out of this land into a land that you do not know, you nor your fathers. And there you shall serve other gods, day and night, for I will show you no grace.

⁷ Therefore brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth (and has long patience for it) until he receives the early and the late rain.

⁸ Therefore, you also be patient, and settle your hearts. For the coming of the Lord draws near.

⁹ Do not groan against one another, brothers, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge stands before the door.

¹⁰ My brothers, take the Prophets as an example of suffering adversity and of long patience, who have spoken in the Name of the Lord.

¹¹ Behold, we count those blessed who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have known what end the Lord made. For the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

¹² But before all things, my brothers, do not swear - not by Heaven, nor by Earth, nor by any other oath. But let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’, ‘no’, lest you fall into condemnation.