Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Hymn of Praise[a]
145 I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king;
I will thank you forever and ever.
2 Every day I will thank you;
I will praise you forever and ever.
3 The Lord is great and is to be highly praised;
his greatness is beyond understanding.
4 What you have done will be praised from one generation to the next;
they will proclaim your mighty acts.
5 They will speak of your glory and majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.
6 People will speak of your mighty deeds,
and I will proclaim your greatness.
7 They will tell about all your goodness
and sing about your kindness.
8 The Lord is loving and merciful,
slow to become angry and full of constant love.
3 The enemy soldiers carry red shields
and wear uniforms of red.
They are preparing to attack!
Their chariots flash like fire!
Their horses[a] prance!
4 Chariots dash wildly through the streets,
rushing back and forth in the city squares.
They flash like torches
and dart about like lightning.
5 The officers are summoned;
they stumble as they press forward.
The attackers rush to the wall
and set up the shield for the battering ram.
6 The gates by the river burst open;
the palace is filled with terror.
7 The queen is taken captive;
her servants moan like doves
and beat their breasts in sorrow.
8 Like water from a broken dam
the people rush from Nineveh![b]
“Stop! Stop!” the cry rings out—
but no one turns back.
9 Plunder the silver!
Plunder the gold!
The city is full of treasure!
10 Nineveh is destroyed, deserted, desolate!
Hearts melt with fear;
knees tremble, strength is gone;
faces grow pale.
11 Where now is the city
that was like a den of lions,
the place where young lions were fed,
where the lion and the lioness would go
and their cubs would be safe?
12 The lion killed his prey
and tore it to pieces for his mate and her cubs;
he filled his den with torn flesh.
13 “I am your enemy!” says the Lord Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots. Your soldiers will be killed in war, and I will take away everything that you took from others. The demands of your envoys will no longer be heard.”
5 Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you?—unless you have completely failed. 6 I trust you will know that we are not failures. 7 We pray to God that you will do no wrong—not in order to show that we are a success, but so that you may do what is right, even though we may seem to be failures. 8 For we cannot do a thing against the truth, but only for it. 9 We are glad when we are weak but you are strong. And so we also pray that you will become perfect. 10 That is why I write this while I am away from you; it is so that when I arrive I will not have to deal harshly with you in using the authority that the Lord has given me—authority to build you up, not to tear you down.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.