Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

25 To you, O Lord, I pray. ² Don’t fail me, Lord, for I am trusting you. Don’t let my enemies succeed. Don’t give them victory over me. ³ None of those who have faith in God will ever be disgraced for trusting him. But all who harm the innocent shall be defeated.

⁴ Show me the path where I should go, O Lord; point out the right road for me to walk. ⁵ Lead me; teach me; for you are the God who gives me salvation. I have no hope except in you. ^6-7 Overlook my youthful sins, O Lord! Look at me instead through eyes of mercy and forgiveness, through eyes of everlasting love and kindness.

⁸ The Lord is good and glad to teach the proper path to all who go astray; ⁹ he will teach the ways that are right and best to those who humbly turn to him. ¹⁰ And when we obey him, every path he guides us on is fragrant with his loving-kindness and his truth.

²⁶ “But despite all this, they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They threw away your law, killed the prophets who told them to return to you, and they did many other terrible things. ²⁷ So you gave them to their enemies. But in their time of trouble they cried to you, and you heard them from heaven, and in great mercy you sent them saviors who delivered them from their enemies. ²⁸ But when all was going well, your people turned to sin again, and once more you let their enemies conquer them. Yet whenever your people returned to you and cried to you for help, once more you listened from heaven, and in your wonderful mercy delivered them! ²⁹ You punished them in order to turn them toward your laws; but even though they should have obeyed them,^[a] they were proud and wouldn’t listen, and continued to sin. ³⁰ You were patient with them for many years. You sent your prophets to warn them about their sins, but still they wouldn’t listen. So once again you allowed the heathen nations to conquer them. ³¹ But in your great mercy you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are!

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. ²¹ Then let the people of Judea flee to the hills. Let those in Jerusalem try to escape, and those outside the city must not attempt to return. ²² For those will be days of God’s judgment,^[a] and the words of the ancient Scriptures written by the prophets will be abundantly fulfilled. ²³ Woe to expectant mothers in those days, and those with tiny babies. For there will be great distress upon this nation^[b] and wrath upon this people. ²⁴ They will be brutally killed by enemy weapons, or sent away as exiles and captives to all the nations of the world; and Jerusalem shall be conquered and trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of Gentile triumph ends in God’s good time.