Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

26 Judge me, O LORD, for I have walked in my innocence. My trust has also been in the LORD. Therefore, I shall not slide.

² Test me, O LORD, and try me. Examine my core and my heart.

³ For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes. Therefore, I have walked in Your truth.

⁴ I have not dwelt with frivolous people, nor kept company with the deceitful.

⁵ I have hated the assembly of the evil and have not kept company with the wicked.

⁶ I will wash my hands in innocence, O LORD, and surround Your altar.

⁷ So that I may declare with the voice of thanksgiving and set forth all Your wondrous works.

⁸ O LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your honor dwells.

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My affection could not be toward this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them depart.

² “And if they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ then tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘Such as are appointed to death, to death. And such as are for the sword, to the sword. And such as are for the famine, to the famine. And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.’

³ “And I will appoint over them four kinds—” says the LORD, “the sword to slay and the dogs to tear in pieces and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the Earth—to devour and to destroy.

⁴ “I will also scatter them in all kingdoms of the Earth, because of Manasseh—the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah—for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ “Who shall then have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? Or who shall be sorry for you? Or who shall go to pray for your peace?

⁶ “You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD, “gone backward. Therefore, I will stretch out My Hand against you, and destroy you. I am weary with pity.

⁷ “And I will scatter them with the fan in the gates of the Earth. I have wasted, destroyed My people. They would not repent from their ways.

⁸ “Their widows are increased by Me above the sand of the sea. I have brought upon them, against the assembly of the young men, a destroyer at noon. I have caused him to fall upon them and the city, suddenly and speedily.

⁹ “She who has borne seven has been made weak. Her heart has failed. The Sun has failed her while it was day. She has been confounded and ashamed. And I will deliver their residue to the sword, before their enemies,” says the LORD.

⁷ For the mystery of iniquity is already at work. He who is now restrained shall be so only until He is taken out of the way.

⁸ And then that wicked man shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth and abolish with the brightness of His coming;

⁹ that is, whose coming is by the working of Satan (with all power and signs and lying wonders)

¹⁰ and in all deceit of unrighteousness among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth (so that they might be saved).

¹¹ And therefore, God shall send them strong delusion, so that they would believe lies,

¹² so that all who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness might be damned.