Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

ה He.

24 Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ² Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this selfsame day: the king of Babylon ^[a]drew close unto Jerusalem this selfsame day. ³ And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it: ⁴ gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. ⁵ Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under ^[b]the caldron; make it boil well; yea, let the bones thereof be boiled in the midst of it.

⁶ Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose ^[c]rust is therein, and whose ^[d]rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen upon it. ⁷ For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust. ⁸ That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered. ⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. ¹⁰ Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned. ¹¹ Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed. ¹² She hath wearied ^[e]herself with toil; yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her; her rust ^[f]goeth not forth by fire. ^13 [g]In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed thee and thou wast not cleansed, thou shalt not be cleansed from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my wrath toward thee to rest. ¹⁴ I, Jehovah, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹¹ I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind ^[a]the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing. ¹² Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all ^[b]patience, by signs and wonders and ^[c]mighty works. ¹³ For what is there wherein ye were made inferior to the rest of the churches, except it be that I myself was not a burden to you? forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴ Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a burden to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵ And I will most gladly spend and be ^[d]spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? ¹⁶ But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile. ¹⁷ Did I take advantage of you by any one of them whom I have sent unto you? ¹⁸ I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? walked we not ^[e]in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?

^19 [f]Ye think all this time that we are excusing ourselves unto you. In the sight of God speak we in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying. ²⁰ For I fear, lest by any means, when I come, I should find you not such as I would, and should myself be found of you such as ye would not; lest by any means there should be strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, ^[g]tumults; ²¹ lest again when I come my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed.