Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 “(A)Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify [a]against you;
I am God, (B)your God.
8 “I do (C)not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 “I shall take no (D)young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.
10 “For (E)every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11 “I know every (F)bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is [b]Mine.
12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the (G)world is Mine, and [c]all it contains.
13 “Shall I eat the flesh of [d](H)bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
14 “Offer to God (I)a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And (J)pay your vows to the Most High;
15 (K)Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall (L)rescue you, and you will (M)honor Me.”
7 In the days of her affliction and homelessness
(A)Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That were from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary
And (B)no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her,
They (C)mocked at her [a]ruin.
8 Jerusalem sinned (D)greatly,
Therefore (E)she has become an unclean thing.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even (F)she herself groans and turns away.
9 Her (G)uncleanness was in her skirts;
She [b]did not consider her (H)future.
Therefore she has [c](I)fallen astonishingly;
(J)She has no comforter.
“(K)See, O Lord, my affliction,
For the enemy has (L)magnified himself!”
10 The adversary has stretched out his hand
Over all her precious things,
For she has seen the (M)nations enter her sanctuary,
The ones whom You commanded
That they should (N)not enter into Your congregation.
11 All her people groan (O)seeking bread;
They have given their precious things for food
To (P)restore their [d]lives themselves.
“See, O Lord, and look,
For I am (Q)despised.”
17 These are (A)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, (B)for whom the [a]black darkness has been reserved. 18 For speaking out (C)arrogant words of (D)vanity they (E)entice by fleshly desires, by (F)sensuality, those who barely (G)escape from the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for (H)by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have (I)escaped the defilements of the world by (J)the knowledge of the (K)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again (L)entangled in them and are overcome, (M)the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 (N)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from (O)the holy commandment (P)handed on to them. 22 [b]It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “(Q)A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
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