Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 46

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah, set to treble voices. A song.

¹ God is our Refuge and Strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains be shaken into the midst of the seas,

³ Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling and tumult. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁴ There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

⁵ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her right early [at the dawn of the morning].

⁶ The nations raged, the kingdoms tottered and were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our Fortress and High Tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations and wonders in the earth.

⁹ He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two; He burns the chariots in the fire.

¹⁰ Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!

¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our High Tower and Stronghold). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

¹⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Relatives] shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister, [how great our loss! Subjects] shall not lament for him saying, Ah, lord! or Ah, his majesty! or Ah, [how great was] his glory!

¹⁹ [No] he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey—dragged out and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out, and raise your voice in [the hills] of Bashan [across the Jordan], and cry out from Abarim [a range of mountains southeast of Palestine], for all your lovers (the king’s chosen allies) are destroyed.^(A)

²¹ I spoke to you in your [times of] prosperity, but you said, I will not listen! This has been your attitude from your youth; you have not obeyed My voice.

²² The wind [of adversity] shall pasture upon and consume all your shepherds (your princes and statesmen), and your lovers (allies) shall go into captivity. Surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded and dismayed because of all your wickedness.

²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made of Lebanon’s trees], you who make your nest among the cedars, how you will groan and how pitiable you will be when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in childbirth!^(B)

²⁴ As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet [ring] upon My right hand, yet would I tear you off.

²⁵ And I will give you into the hands of those who seek your life and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ And I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you will die.

²⁷ But to the land to which they will yearn to return, there they will not return.

²⁸ Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken pot? Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure? Why are they hurled out, he and his royal offspring, and cast into a land which they do not know, understand, or recognize?

²⁹ O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!

³⁰ Thus says the Lord: Write this man [Coniah] down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his offspring shall succeed in sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.

¹⁵ Now they were also bringing [even] babies to Him that He might touch them, and when the disciples noticed it, they reproved them.

¹⁶ But Jesus called them [^[a]the parents] to Him, saying, Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for to such [as these] belongs the kingdom of God.

¹⁷ Truly I say to you, whoever does not accept and receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] shall not in any way enter it [at all].