Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Do Not Pray for Judah
16 “As for you, do not pray for these people.(A) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg Me,(B) for I will not listen to you.(C) 17 Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,[a](D) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke Me to anger. 19 But are they really provoking Me?”(E) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”
20 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, My anger—My burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,(F) on man and beast, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”(G)
Obedience Over Sacrifice
21 This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,(H) 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them(I) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.(J) 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention(K) but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.(L) 25 Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent all My servants the prophets(M) to you time and time again.[b](N) 26 However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate;[c](O) they did more evil than their ancestors.(P)
7 Look at what is obvious.[a] If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ,(A) he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to Christ, so do we. 8 For if I boast some more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up(B) and not for tearing you down, I am not ashamed. 9 I don’t want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters. 10 For it is said, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking is despicable.” 11 Such a person should consider this: What we are in the words of our letters when absent, we will be in actions when present.
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