Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

126 When Jehovah brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! ² How we laughed and sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”

³ Yes, glorious things! What wonder! What joy! ⁴ May we be refreshed^[a] as by streams in the desert.

⁵ Those who sow tears shall reap joy. ⁶ Yes, they go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, and return singing, carrying their sheaves.

⁸ Bring them back to me—blind as they are and deaf when I call (although they see and hear!).

⁹ Gather the nations together! Which of all their idols ever has foretold such things? Which can predict a single day ahead? Where are the witnesses of anything they said? If there are no witnesses, then they must confess that only God can prophesy.

¹⁰ But I have witnesses, O Israel, says the Lord! You are my witnesses and my servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be. ¹¹ I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. ¹² Whenever you have thrown away your idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved you. You have seen me do it; you are my witnesses that it is true. ¹³ From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do.

¹⁴ The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sakes I will send an invading army against Babylon that will walk in, almost unscathed. The boasts of the Babylonians will turn to cries of fear. ¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King.

²⁵ Meanwhile, I thought I ought to send Epaphroditus back to you. You sent him to help me in my need; well, he and I have been real brothers, working and battling side by side. ²⁶ Now I am sending him home again, for he has been homesick for all of you and upset because you heard that he was ill. ²⁷ And he surely was; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him and on me, too, not allowing me to have this sorrow on top of everything else.

²⁸ So I am all the more anxious to get him back to you again, for I know how thankful you will be to see him, and that will make me happy and lighten all my cares. ²⁹ Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and show your appreciation, ³⁰ for he risked his life for the work of Christ and was at the point of death while trying to do for me the things you couldn’t do because you were far away.

3 Whatever happens, dear friends, be glad in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you this, and it is good for you to hear it again and again.