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.

¹⁶ Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Neither weep for them nor pray nor beg that I should help them, for I will not listen. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ No wonder my anger is great! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build fires, and the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven^[a] and to their other idol-gods! ¹⁹ Am I the one that they are hurting? asks the Lord. Most of all they hurt themselves, to their own shame. ²⁰ So the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger, yes, my fury on this place—people, animals, trees, and plants will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.

²¹ The Lord, the God of Israel says: Away with your offerings and sacrifices! ²² It wasn’t offerings and sacrifices I wanted from your fathers when I led them out of Egypt. That was not the point of my command. ²³ But what I told them was: Obey me, and I will be your God and you shall be my people; only do as I say, and all shall be well!

²⁴ But they wouldn’t listen; they kept on doing whatever they wanted to, following their own stubborn, evil thoughts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵ Ever since the day your fathers left Egypt until now, I have kept on sending them my prophets, day after day. ²⁶ But they wouldn’t listen to them or even try to hear. They are hard and stubborn and rebellious—worse even than their fathers were.

⁷ The trouble with you is that you look at me and I seem weak and powerless, but you don’t look beneath the surface. Yet if anyone can claim the power and authority of Christ, I certainly can. ⁸ I may seem to be boasting more than I should about my authority over you—authority to help you, not to hurt you—but I shall make good every claim. ⁹ I say this so that you will not think I am just blustering when I scold you in my letters.

¹⁰ “Don’t bother about his letters,” some say. “He sounds big, but it’s all noise. When he gets here you will see that there is nothing great about him, and you have never heard a worse preacher!” ¹¹ This time my personal presence is going to be just as rough on you as my letters are!