Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

123 O God enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes to you.

² We look to Jehovah our God for his mercy and kindness just as a servant keeps his eyes upon his master or a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.

^3-4 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. For we have had our fill of contempt and of the scoffing of the rich and proud.

7 Then the Lord said to Jeremiah:

² Go over to the entrance of the Temple of the Lord and give this message to the people: O Judah, listen to this message from God. Listen to it, all of you who worship here. ³ The Lord, the God of Israel says: Even yet, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. ⁴ But don’t be fooled by those who lie to you and say that since the Temple of the Lord is here, God will never let Jerusalem be destroyed. ⁵ You may remain under these conditions only: If you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds and are fair to others; ⁶ if you stop exploiting orphans, widows, and foreigners, and stop your murdering; if you stop worshiping idols as you do now to your hurt, ⁷ then, and only then, will I let you stay in this land that I gave to your fathers to keep forever.

⁸ You think that because the Temple is here, you will never suffer? Don’t fool yourselves! ⁹ Do you really think that you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and worship Baal and all of those new gods of yours, ¹⁰ and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are saved!”—only to go right back to all these evil things again? ¹¹ Is my Temple but a den of robbers in your eyes? For I see all the evil going on in there.

¹² Go to Shiloh, the city I first honored with my name, and see what I did to her because of all the wickedness of my people Israel. ^13-14 And now, says the Lord, I will do the same thing here because of all this evil you have done. Again and again I spoke to you about it, rising up early and calling, but you refused to hear or answer. Yes, I will destroy this Temple, as I did in Shiloh—this Temple called by my name, which you trust for help, and this place I gave to you and to your fathers. ¹⁵ And I will send you into exile, just as I did your brothers, the people of Ephraim.

⁸ You seem to think you already have all the spiritual food you need. You are full and spiritually contented, rich kings on your thrones, leaving us far behind! I wish you really were already on your thrones, for when that time comes you can be sure that we will be there, too, reigning with you. ⁹ Sometimes I think God has put us apostles at the very end of the line, like prisoners soon to be killed, put on display at the end of a victor’s parade, to be stared at by men and angels alike.

¹⁰ Religion has made us foolish, you say, but of course you are all such wise and sensible Christians! We are weak, but not you! You are well thought of, while we are laughed at. ¹¹ To this very hour we have gone hungry and thirsty, without even enough clothes to keep us warm. We have been kicked around without homes of our own. ¹² We have worked wearily with our hands to earn our living. We have blessed those who cursed us. We have been patient with those who injured us. ¹³ We have replied quietly when evil things have been said about us. Yet right up to the present moment we are like dirt underfoot, like garbage.