Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁷ Restore us again, O God of hosts; and cause Your face to shine [upon us with favor as of old], and we shall be saved!

⁸ You brought a vine [Israel] out of Egypt; You drove out the [heathen] nations and planted it [in Canaan].

⁹ You prepared room before it, and it took deep root and it filled the land.

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs of it were like the great cedars [cedars of God].

¹¹ [Israel] sent out its boughs to the [Mediterranean] Sea and its branches to the [Euphrates] River.^(A)

¹² Why have You broken down its hedges and walls so that all who pass by pluck from its fruit?

¹³ The boar out of the wood wastes it and the wild beast of the field feeds on it.

¹⁴ Turn again, we beseech You, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and see, visit, and have regard for this vine!

¹⁵ [Protect and maintain] the stock which Your right hand planted, and the branch (the son) that You have reared and made strong for Yourself.

²³ How can you say, I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baals [other gods]? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done. You are a restive young female camel [in the uncontrollable violence of her brute passion eagerly] running hither and thither,

²⁴ Or [you have the untamed and reckless nature of] a wild donkey used to the desert, in her heat sniffing the wind [for the scent of a male]. In her mating season who can restrain her? No males seeking her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her [seeking them].

²⁵ [Cease from your mad running after idols, from which you get nothing but bitter injury.] Keep your feet from being unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, It is hopeless! For I have loved strangers and foreigners, and after them I will go.

²⁶ As the thief is brought to shame when he is caught, so shall the house of Israel be brought to shame—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets—

²⁷ [Inasmuch as] they say to a tree, You are my father, and to a stone, You gave me birth. For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces; but in the time of their trouble, they say, Arise [O Lord] and save us!

²⁸ But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble! For [as many as] the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. [Surely so many handmade idols should be able to help you!]

²⁹ Why do you complain and remonstrate against My wrath? You all have rebelled and revolted against Me, says the Lord.

³⁰ In vain have I stricken your children (your people); they received no discipline (no correction). Your own sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.

³¹ O generation [that you are]! Behold, consider, and regard the word of the Lord: Have I been a wilderness to Israel [like a land without food]? A land of deep darkness [like a way without light]? Why do My people say, We have broken loose [we are free and will roam at large]; we will come no more to You?

³² Can a maid forget and neglect [to wear] her ornaments, or a bride her [marriage] girdle [with its significance like that of a wedding ring]? Yet My people have forgotten Me, days without number.

³³ How you deck yourself and direct your way to procure [adulterous] love! Because of it even wicked women have learned [indecent] ways from you.

³⁴ Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the persons of the innocent poor; you did not find them housebreaking, nor have I found it out by secret search. But it is because of [your lust for idolatry that you have done] all these things—[that is everywhere evident.]

³⁵ Yet you keep saying, I am innocent; surely His anger has turned away from Me. Behold, I will bring you to judgment and will plead against you because you say, I have not sinned.

³⁶ Why do you gad or wander about so much to change your way? You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷ From [Egypt] also you will come away with your hands upon your head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you confide, and you will not prosper with [respect to] them.

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [^[a]against God] and ^[b]questioning and doubting [among yourselves],

¹⁵ That you may show yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation [spiritually perverted and perverse], among whom you are seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world,

¹⁶ Holding out [to it] and offering [to all men] the Word of Life, so that in the day of Christ I may have something of which exultantly to rejoice and glory in that I did not run my race in vain or spend my labor to no purpose.

¹⁷ Even if [my lifeblood] must be poured out as a libation on the sacrificial offering of your faith [to God], still I am glad [to do it] and ^[c]congratulate you all on [your share in] it.

¹⁸ And you also in like manner be glad and ^[d]congratulate me on [my share in] it.

3 For the rest, my brethren, delight yourselves in the Lord and continue to rejoice that you are in Him. To keep writing to you [over and over] of the same things is not irksome to me, and it is [a precaution] for your safety.

² Look out for those dogs [Judaizers, legalists], look out for those mischief-makers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

³ For we [Christians] are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances—

⁴ Though for myself I have [at least grounds] to rely on the flesh. If any other man considers that he has or seems to have reason to rely on the flesh and his physical and outward advantages, I have still more!