Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Joy of Worshiping in the Temple
For the music director; on the Gittith.
Of the sons of Korah. A psalm.[a]
84 How lovely are your dwelling places,
O Yahweh of hosts!
2 My soul longs and even fails
for the courtyards of Yahweh.
My heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
near your altars, O Yahweh of hosts,
my king and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;[b]
they can ever praise you. Selah
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you;
in their heart are the highways to Zion.
6 Passing through the Valley of Baca,[c]
they make it a spring.
The early rain covers it with blessings[d] as well.
7 They go from strength to strength,
until each appears before God in Zion.[e]
9 [a] Oh that my head were waters,[b]
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night,
for the slain of the daughter of my people.
2 Oh that I had[c] in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers,
that I may leave my people and go from them,
for all of them are adulterers,
a band of traitors.
3 And they bend their tongue like their bow,
for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land,
for they go forth[d] from evil to evil,
and they do not know me,” declares[e] Yahweh.
A Nation Characterized by Deceit
4 “Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor,
and you must not trust in any brother,
for everyone surely betrays,
and every neighbor goes about with slander.
5 And everyone deceives his neighbor,
and they do not speak the truth,
they have taught their tongues[f] to speak lies,[g]
they are tired from going astray.
6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit,
upon[h] deceit they refuse to know me,” declares[i] Yahweh.
7 Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts:
“Look, I am about to refine them,
and I will test them,
for what else can I do,
because of the presence[j] of the daughter of my people?
8 Their tongue is a murderous arrow,
it speaks deceit.
With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor,
but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush.
9 Because of these things shall I not punish them?” declares[k] Yahweh,
“On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge?
10 For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing,
and for the pastures of the desert a lament,
because they are laid waste so that no man passes through.
And the sounds[l] of cattle are not heard,
from the birds[m] of heaven to the animals[n]
they have fled, they are gone.
11 And I will make Jerusalem as heaps of ruins, a lair of jackals,
and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitants.[o]
12 Who is the wise man that can understand this?
And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it?
Why is the land destroyed?
It is laid waste like the desert[p] so that no one passes through.”
The Nation is Judged by Yahweh
13 And Yahweh said, “Because of their forsaking my law that I set before[q] them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it, 14 but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors[r] taught them.” 15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Look, I am feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison, 16 and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors,[s] and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end.”
Difficult Times Ahead in the Last Days
3 But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, 2 for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God, 5 maintaining a form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid these people. 6 For from these are those who slip into houses and captivate foolish women loaded down with sins, led by various kinds of desires, 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as[a] Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these oppose the truth, people corrupted in mind, disqualified concerning the faith. 9 But they will not progress to a greater extent, for their folly will be quite evident to everyone, as also the folly of those two was.
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