Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord’s Charges Against Them
7 Listen, my people, and let me speak, O Israel.
Then I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
Hypocritical Sacrifices Are Useless
8 It is not because of your sacrifices that I rebuke you
or because of your burnt offerings that are always in front of me.
9 I do not need to take a bull from your barn
or goats from your pens,
10 because every animal in the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand mountains.
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and everything that moves in the field is with me.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
because the world is mine, and all that fills it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or do I drink the blood of goats?
Sincere Sacrifices Bring Blessing
14 Sacrifice a thank offering to God,
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of distress.
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
7 Jerusalem remembers the days of her affliction and her homeless wandering.
She remembers all her precious things which were hers from long ago.
When her people fell under the hand of the foe, there was no one to help her.
Foes saw her and laughed at the end she has come to.
8 Jerusalem has sinned terribly, so she is unclean.[a]
All who once honored her now despise her, because they have seen her nakedness.
She can only sigh and turn away.
9 Her flow of blood stains her skirt. She did not consider the outcome of her sin.
Her collapse was astonishing. There was no one to comfort her.
Look, Lord, at my affliction, for the enemy has done awful things.
10 The foe has laid hands on all her precious things.
She has even seen nations enter her sanctuary,
nations about whom you commanded, “They shall not enter your assembly.”
11 All her people are sighing as they search for bread.
They traded their precious things for food in order to stay alive.
Look, Lord, and see that I have become despised.
17 These men are wells without water, clouds driven away by a windstorm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved.[a] 18 For by uttering arrogant, empty words, they use the depraved lusts of the flesh to seduce those who are barely[b] escaping from those who live in error. 19 While they promise these people freedom, they themselves are slaves to corruption, for a person is a slave to what has control of him.
The Tragedy of Being Led Back Into a Sinful Life
20 Indeed, if, after escaping the defiling things of the world through the knowledge of our[c] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and controlled by them again, they are worse off than they were at first. 21 In fact, it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command passed on to them. 22 They demonstrate the truth of the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit,”[d] and a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.