Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But as for me, O Lord, deal with me as your child, as one who bears your name! Because you are so kind, O Lord, deliver me.
22-23 I am slipping down the hill to death; I am shaken off from life as easily as a man brushes a grasshopper from his arm. 24 My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones. 25 I am a symbol of failure to all mankind; when they see me they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! Save me because you are loving and kind. 27 Do it publicly, so all will see that you yourself have done it. 28 Then let them curse me if they like—I won’t mind that if you are blessing me! For then all their efforts to destroy me will fail, and I shall go right on rejoicing!
29 Make them fail in everything they do. Clothe them with disgrace. 30 But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising him to everyone. 31 For he stands beside the poor and hungry to save them from their enemies.
18 “Then I spoke to their children and said: ‘Don’t follow your fathers’ footsteps. Don’t defile yourselves with their idols, 19 for I am the Lord your God. Follow my laws; keep my ordinances; 20 hallow my Sabbaths; for they are a symbol of the contract between us to help you remember that I am the Lord your God.’
21 “But their children, too, rebelled against me. They refused my laws—the laws that if a person keeps them, he will live. And they defiled my Sabbaths. So then I said: ‘Now at last I will pour out my fury upon you in the wilderness.’
22 “Nevertheless, again I withdrew my judgment against them to protect my name among the nations who had seen my power in bringing them out of Egypt. 23-24 But I took a solemn oath against them while they were in the wilderness that I would scatter them, dispersing them to the ends of the earth because they did not obey my laws but scorned them and violated my Sabbaths and longed for their fathers’ idols. 25 I let them adopt[a] customs and laws which were worthless. Through the keeping of them they could not attain life. 26 In the hope that they would draw back in horror and know that I alone am God, I let them pollute themselves with the very gifts I gave them. They burnt their firstborn children as offerings to their gods!
27-28 “Son of dust, tell them that the Lord God says: Your fathers continued to blaspheme and betray me when I brought them into the land I promised them, for they offered sacrifices and incense on every high hill and under every tree! They roused my fury as they offered up their sacrifices to those ‘gods.’ They brought their perfumes and incense and poured out their drink offerings to them! 29 I said to them: ‘What is this place of sacrifice[b] where you go?’ And so it is still called ‘The Place of Sacrifice’—that is how it got its name.
30 “The Lord God wants to know whether you are going to pollute yourselves just as your fathers did and keep on worshiping idols. 31 For when you offer gifts to them and give your little sons to be burned to ashes as you do even today, shall I listen to you or help you, Israel? As I live,” the Lord God says, “I will not give you any message, though you have come to me to ask.
32 “What you have in mind will not be done—to be like the nations all around you, serving gods of wood and stone.
7
“This message is sent to you by the one who is holy and true and has the key of David to open what no one can shut and to shut what no one can open.
8 “I know you well; you aren’t strong, but you have tried to obey[a] and have not denied my Name. Therefore I have opened a door to you that no one can shut.
9 “Note this: I will force those supporting the causes of Satan while claiming to be mine[b] (but they aren’t—they are lying) to fall at your feet and acknowledge that you are the ones I love.
10 “Because you have patiently obeyed me despite the persecution, therefore I will protect you from the time of Great Tribulation and temptation,[c] which will come upon the world to test everyone alive. 11 Look, I am coming soon![d] Hold tightly to the little strength you have—so that no one will take away your crown.
12 “As for the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; he will be secure and will go out no more; and I will write my God’s Name on him, and he will be a citizen in the city of my God—the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from my God; and he will have my new Name inscribed upon him.
13 “Let all who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.