Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

13 How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever? How long will you look the other way when I am in need? ² How long must I be hiding daily anguish in my heart? How long shall my enemy have the upper hand?

³ Answer me, O Lord my God; give me light in my darkness lest I die. ⁴ Don’t let my enemies say, “We have conquered him!” Don’t let them gloat that I am down.

⁵ But I will always trust in you and in your mercy and shall rejoice in your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord because he has blessed me so richly.

12 This is the fate of Israel, as pronounced by the Lord, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him:

² “I will make Jerusalem and Judah like a cup of poison to all the nearby nations that send their armies to surround Jerusalem. ³ Jerusalem will be a heavy stone burdening the world. And though all the nations of the earth unite in an attempt to move her, they will all be crushed.

⁴ “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will bewilder the armies drawn up against her, and make fools of them, for I will watch over the people of Judah, but blind all her enemies.

⁵ “And the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the Lord Almighty, their God.’

⁶ “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a little fire that sets the forest aflame—like a burning match among the sheaves; they will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while Jerusalem stands unmoved. ⁷ The Lord will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David won’t be filled with pride at their success.

⁸ “The Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal line will be as God, like the Angel of the Lord who goes before them! ⁹ For my plan is to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “Then I will pour out the spirit of grace and prayer on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on him they pierced, and mourn for him as for an only son, and grieve bitterly for him as for an oldest child who died. ¹¹ The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem at that time will be even greater than the grievous mourning for the godly King Josiah,^[a] who was killed in the valley of Megiddo.

^12-14 “All of Israel will weep in profound sorrow. The whole nation will be bowed down with universal grief—king, prophet, priest, and people. Each family will go into private mourning, husbands and wives apart, to face their sorrow alone.

13 “At that time a Fountain will be opened to the people of Israel and Jerusalem, a Fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”

⁹ But when these things begin to happen, watch out! For you will be in great danger. You will be dragged before the courts, and beaten in the synagogues, and accused before governors and kings of being my followers. This is your opportunity to tell them the Good News. ¹⁰ And the Good News must first be made known in every nation before the end-time finally comes.^{[a] 11} But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry about what to say in your defense. Just say what God tells you to. Then you will not be speaking, but the Holy Spirit will.

¹² “Brothers will betray each other to death, fathers will betray their own children, and children will betray their parents to be killed. ¹³ And everyone will hate you because you are mine. But all who endure to the end without renouncing me shall be saved.

¹⁴ “When you see the horrible thing standing in the Temple^[b] —reader, pay attention!—flee, if you can, to the Judean hills. ^15-16 Hurry! If you are on your rooftop porch, don’t even go back into the house. If you are out in the fields, don’t even return for your money or clothes.

¹⁷ “Woe to pregnant women in those days, and to mothers nursing their children. ¹⁸ And pray that your flight will not be in winter. ¹⁹ For those will be days of such horror as have never been since the beginning of God’s creation, nor will ever be again. ²⁰ And unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a soul in all the earth will survive. But for the sake of his chosen ones he will limit those days.

²¹ “And then if anyone tells you, ‘This is the Messiah,’ or, ‘That one is,’ don’t pay any attention. ²² For there will be many false Messiahs and false prophets who will do wonderful miracles that would deceive, if possible, even God’s own children.^{[c] 23} Take care! I have warned you!