Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 (A)“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
(B)I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices (C)do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 (D)I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
(E)for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 (F)Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[a]
and (G)perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and (H)call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will (I)deliver you, and you shall (J)glorify me.”
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
(A)all the precious things
that were hers from (B)days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
they (C)mocked at her downfall.
8 (D)Jerusalem sinned grievously;
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
(E)for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself (F)groans
and turns her face away.
9 Her uncleanness was (G)in her skirts;
(H)she took no thought of her future;[a]
therefore her fall is terrible;
(I)she has no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy has (J)triumphed!”
17 (A)These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. (B)For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, (C)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely (D)escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them (E)freedom, (F)but they themselves are slaves[a] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, (G)after they have escaped the defilements of the world (H)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, (I)the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For (J)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from (K)the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The (L)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.