Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³³ Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end [steadfastly].

³⁴ Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law; yes, I will observe it with my whole heart.^(A)

³⁵ Make me go in the path of Your commandments, for in them do I delight.

³⁶ Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness (robbery, sensuality, unworthy riches).^(B)

³⁷ Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways.

³⁸ Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, which is for those who reverently fear and devotedly worship You.^(C)

³⁹ Turn away my reproach which I fear and dread, for Your ordinances are good.

⁴⁰ Behold, I long for Your precepts; in Your righteousness give me renewed life.

24 Again in the ninth year [of King Jehoiachin’s captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon], in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Son of man, record the name of the day, even of this same day; the king of Babylon set himself against and assailed Jerusalem this same day.

³ And utter a parable against the rebellious house [of Judah] and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Put on a pot; put it on and also pour water into it.

⁴ Put into it the pieces [of meat], all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with the choice of the bones.

⁵ Take the choicest of the flock and burn also the unused bones under it, and make it boil well and seethe its bones in [the pot].

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust and scum are in it and whose rust and scum have not gone out of it! Take out of it piece by piece, without making any choice.

⁷ For the blood she has shed remains in the midst of her; she put it upon the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

⁸ That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have put her blood [guilt for her children sacrificed to Molech] upon the bare rock, that it would not be covered.

⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloodguilty city! Also I will make the pile [of fuel] great.

¹⁰ Heap on wood, kindle the fire and make it hot, boil well the meat and mix the spices, pour out the broth when thick, and let the bones be burned up.

¹¹ Then set [the pot Jerusalem] back empty upon the coals, that the bronze of it may be hot and may glow and the filthiness of it may be melted in it and the rust and scum of it may be consumed.

¹² She has wearied herself and Me with toil; yet her great rust and scum go not forth out of her, for however hotly the fire burns, her thick rust and filth will not go out of her by fire.

¹³ In your filthiness is abomination; [and therefore] because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more until I have satisfied My wrath against and upon you.

¹⁴ I the Lord 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 relent; according to your ways and according to your doings shall they judge and punish you, says the Lord God.

¹¹ Now I have been [speaking like] a fool! But you forced me to it, for I ought to have been [^[a]saved the necessity and] commended by you. For I have not fallen short one bit or proved myself at all inferior to those superlative [false] apostles [of yours], even if I am nothing (a nobody).

¹² Indeed, the signs that indicate a [genuine] apostle were performed among you fully and most patiently in miracles and wonders and mighty works.

¹³ For in what respect were you put to a disadvantage in comparison with the rest of the churches, unless [it was for the fact] that I myself did not burden you [with my financial support]? Pardon me [for doing you] this injustice!

¹⁴ Now for the third time I am ready to come to [visit] you. And I will not burden you [financially], for it is not your [money] that I want but you; for children are not duty bound to lay up store for their parents, but parents for their children.

¹⁵ But I will most gladly spend [myself] and be utterly spent for your souls. If I love you exceedingly, am I to be loved [by you] the less?

¹⁶ But though granting that I did not burden you [with my support, some say that] I was crafty [and that] I cheated and got the better of you with my trickery.

¹⁷ Did I [then] take advantage of you or make any money out of you through any of those [messengers] whom I sent to you?

¹⁸ [Actually] I urged Titus [to go], and I sent the brother with [him]. Did Titus overreach or take advantage of you [in anything]? Did he and I not act in the same spirit? Did we not [take the] same steps?

¹⁹ Have you been supposing [all this time] that we have been defending ourselves and apologizing to you? [It is] in the sight and the [very] presence of God [and as one] in Christ (the Messiah) that we have been speaking, dearly beloved, and all in order to build you up [spiritually].

²⁰ For I am fearful that somehow or other I may come and find you not as I desire to find you, and that you may find me too not as you want to find me—that perhaps there may be factions (quarreling), jealousy, temper (wrath, intrigues, rivalry, divided loyalties), selfishness, whispering, gossip, arrogance (self-assertion), and disorder among you.

²¹ [I am fearful] that when I come again, my God may humiliate and humble me in your regard, and that I may have to sorrow over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, sexual vice, and sensuality which they formerly practiced.