Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

56 Be merciful to me, O God; for man desires to swallow me up. He fights continually and troubles me.

² My enemies would swallow me up daily; for many fight against me, O You Most High.

³ When I was afraid, I trusted in You.

⁴ I will rejoice in God because of His Word. I trust in God and will not fear what flesh can do to me.

⁵ My own words grieve me daily. All their thoughts are against me, to do me hurt.

⁶ They gather together and keep themselves close. They mark my steps because they wait for my soul.

⁷ They think they shall escape by iniquity. O God, cast these people down in Your anger.

⁸ You have counted my wanderings. Put my tears into Your bottle. Are they not in Your register?

⁹ When I cry, then my enemies shall turn back. This I know; for God is with me.

¹⁰ I will rejoice in God because of His Word. I will rejoice in the LORD because of His Word.

¹¹ In God do I trust. I will not be afraid what man can do to me.

¹² Your vows are upon me, O God. I will render praises to You.

¹³ For You have delivered my soul from death—and also my feet from falling—so that I may walk before God in the light of the living. To him who excels: Do not destroy. A Psalm of David, on Michtam, when he fled from Saul in the cave

¹¹ After this, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a rod of almond tree.”

¹² Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen correctly. For I will hasten My Word, to perform it.”

¹³ Again the Word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a seething pot, looking out of the North.”

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, “A plague shall spread out of the North, upon all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵ “For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the North,” says the LORD, “and they shall come. And everyone shall set his throne in the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and on all its walls, all around, and in all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶ “And I will declare to them My Judgments touching all the wickedness of those who have forsaken Me, and have burnt incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

¹⁷ “You, therefore, truss up your loins and arise and speak to them, all that I Command you. Do not be afraid of their faces, lest I destroy you before them.

¹⁸ “For I, behold, I, this day, have made you a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and walls of brass, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

¹⁹ “For they shall fight against you. But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, to deliver you,” says the LORD.

⁴¹ And when He had come near, He looked at the city and wept for it,

⁴² saying, “O, if you had known (even at the least, and on this your day) those things which belong to your peace! But now are they hidden from your eyes.

⁴³ “For the days shall come upon you that your enemies will cast a rampart around you, and surround you, and trap you on every side,

⁴⁴ “And shall make you even with the ground (and your children who are in you). And they shall not leave a stone upon a stone within you. Because you did not know the time of your visitation.”