Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

43 O God, defend me from the charges of these merciless, deceitful men. ² For you are God, my only place of refuge. Why have you tossed me aside? Why must I mourn at the oppression of my enemies?

³ Oh, send out your light and your truth—let them lead me. Let them lead me to your Temple on your holy mountain, Zion. ⁴ There I will go to the altar of God, my exceeding joy, and praise him with my harp. O God—my God! ⁵ O my soul, why be so gloomy and discouraged? Trust in God! I shall again praise him for his wondrous help; he will make me smile again,^[a] for he is my God!

13 Then this message came to me: ^2-3 “Son of dust, prophesy against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own visions and claiming to have messages from me when I have never told them anything at all. Woe upon them!

⁴ “O Israel, these ‘prophets’ of yours are as useless as foxes for rebuilding your walls! ⁵ O evil prophets, what have you ever done to strengthen the walls of Israel against her enemies—by strengthening Israel in the Lord? ⁶ Instead you have lied when you said, ‘My message is from God!’ God did not send you. And yet you expect him to fulfill your prophecies. ⁷ Can you deny that you have claimed to see ‘visions’ you never saw, and that you have said, ‘This message is from God,’ when I never spoke to you at all?”

⁸ Therefore the Lord God says: “I will destroy you for these ‘visions’ and lies. ⁹ My hand shall be against you, and you shall be cut off from among the leaders of Israel; I will blot out your names, and you will never see your own country again. And you shall know I am the Lord. ¹⁰ For these evil men deceive my people by saying, ‘God will send peace,’ when that is not my plan at all! My people build a flimsy wall, and these prophets praise them for it—and cover it with whitewash!

¹¹ “Tell these evil builders that their wall will fall. A heavy rainstorm will undermine it; great hailstones and mighty winds will knock it down. ¹² And when the wall falls, the people will cry out, ‘Why didn’t you tell us that it wasn’t good enough? Why did you whitewash it and cover up its faults?’ ¹³ Yes, it will surely fall.” The Lord God says: “I will sweep it away with a storm of indignation, with a great flood of anger, and with hailstones of wrath. ¹⁴ I will break down your whitewashed wall; it will fall on you and crush you, and you shall know I am the Lord. ¹⁵ Then at last my wrath against the wall will be completed; and concerning those who praised it, I will say: The wall and its builders both are gone. ¹⁶ For they were lying prophets, claiming Jerusalem will have peace when there is no peace,” says the Lord God.

2 But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end. ² Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin. And because of them Christ and his way will be scoffed at.

³ These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way.