Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Relief from Contempt

A Song of Ascents.

Trusting in Lying Words^(A)

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ^2 (B)“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(C)“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ^4 (D)Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

⁵ “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly ^(E)execute ^[a]judgment between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, ^(F)or walk after other gods to your hurt, ^7 (G)then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in ^(H)the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in ^(I)lying words that cannot profit. ^9 (J)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and ^(K)walk after other gods whom you do not know, ^10 (L)and then come and stand before Me in this house ^(M)which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has ^(N)this house, which is called by My name, become a ^(O)den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to ^(P)My place which was in Shiloh, ^(Q)where I set My name at the first, and see ^(R)what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, ^(S)rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I ^(T)called you, but you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to ^(U)Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of My sight, ^(V)as I have cast out all your brethren—^(W)the whole posterity of Ephraim.

⁸ You are already full! ^(A)You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us—and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you! ⁹ For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a ^(B)spectacle ^[a]to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are ^(C)fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! ^(D)We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. ^12 (E)And we labor, working with our own hands. ^(F)Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; ¹³ being defamed, we ^[b]entreat. ^(G)We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.