Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

LAMED

⁸⁹ O LORD, Your Word endures forever in Heaven.

⁹⁰ Your Truth is from generation to generation. You have laid the foundation of the Earth, and it abides.

⁹¹ They continue even to this day by Your Ordinances, for all are Your servants.

⁹² Except Your Law had been my delight, I should now have perished in my affliction.

⁹³ I will never forget Your Precepts, for by them You have quickened me.

⁹⁴ I am Yours. Save me. For I have sought Your Precepts.

⁹⁵ The wicked have waited for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your Testimonies.

⁹⁶ I have seen the end of all perfection; but Your Commandment is exceedingly large.

36 And in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this Word to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

² “Take a scroll of a Book and write in it all the Words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you (from the days of Josiah) to this day.

³ “It may be that the House of Judah will hear of all the misery which I determined to bring to them, so that everyone may turn from his evil way, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sins.”

⁴ Then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah. And Jeremiah dictated, and Baruch wrote down, all the Words of the LORD which He had spoken to Jeremiah upon a scroll of a Book.

⁵ And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am detained, and cannot go into the House of the LORD.

⁶ “Therefore, you go and read the scroll which I have dictated and you have written, the Words of the LORD, in the audience of the people in the LORD’s House, upon the fasting day. Also, you shall read them within the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

⁷ “It may be that they will pray before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has declared against this people.”

⁸ So Baruch, the son of Neriah, did according to all that Jeremiah the Prophet commanded him, reading the Words of the LORD from the Book in the LORD’s House.

⁹ And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.

¹⁰ Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the Book, in the House of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan the Secretary, in the higher court at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s House, within the hearing of all the people.

14 Pursue love, and desire spiritual things, more so that you may prophesy.

² For the one who speaks in a tongue, speaks not to man, but to God. For no one hears. But in the spirit he speaks secret things.

³ But the one who prophesies, speaks to man for edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

⁴ The one who speaks in a tongue, edifies himself. But the one who prophesies, edifies the Church.

⁵ Now, I would prefer that you all spoke in tongues, even more so that you prophesied. For greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the Church may receive edification.

⁶ And now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I benefit you, unless I speak to you by either revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?

⁷ Just as things without life give a sound, whether a pipe or a harp, how shall it be known what is piped or harped unless a distinction is made between the sounds?

⁸ And also if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?

⁹ So likewise you, by the tongue, unless you utter words that are understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you shall speak into the air.

¹⁰ There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them without significance.

¹¹ Unless, then, I know the miraculous power of the voice, I shall be to him who speaks a Barbarian, and he who speaks, shall be to me a Barbarian.

¹² Even so, since you covet spiritual things, seek that you may excel at the edifying of the Church.