Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 131

A pilgrimage song. Of David.

Submit to the king of Babylon and live

27 Early in the rule of Judah’s King Zedekiah,^[a] Josiah’s son, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² This is what the Lord said to me: Make a yoke of straps and bars and wear it on your neck. ³ Then send word^[b] to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their representatives who have come to Jerusalem to Judah’s King Zedekiah. ⁴ Tell them to say to their masters: The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Say this to your masters:

⁵ By my great power and outstretched arm, I have made the earth and the people and animals that are on it. I can give it to anyone I please. ⁶ Now I hand over all these countries to my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I even give him the wild animals as subjects. ⁷ All nations will serve him, his son and grandson, until the time for his land arrives; then many nations and great kings will conquer him.

⁸ As for the nation or country that won’t serve Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and won’t put its neck under his yoke, I will punish it with sword, famine, and disease until I have destroyed it by his hand, declares the Lord. ⁹ As for you, don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers,^[c] mediums, or your sorcerers who say to you, “Don’t serve the king of Babylon.” ¹⁰ They are lying to you, and their lies will lead to banishment from your land. I will drive you out, and you will perish. ¹¹ But any nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let stay in its land to till it and live on it, declares the Lord.

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and all this people: This is what the Lord says: Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you, “In a short while, the temple equipment will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don’t listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Otherwise, this city will be reduced to ruin. ¹⁸ If they are really prophets and have the Lord’s word, let them intercede with the Lord of heavenly forces not to let the equipment left in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace of Judah and Jerusalem be carted off to Babylon.

¹⁹ This is what the Lord of heavenly forces proclaims about the pillars, the Sea, the stands, and the rest of the equipment left in this city, ²⁰ which Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t plunder when he deported Jeconiah the son of Judah’s King Jehoiakim from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the officials of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹ Yes, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims about the equipment that is left in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace in Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They will be carted off to Babylon where they will remain until the day I come looking for them, declares the Lord; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

Gentiles are without excuse

¹⁸ God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodly behavior and the injustice of human beings who silence the truth with injustice. ¹⁹ This is because what is known about God should be plain to them because God made it plain to them. ²⁰ Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—God’s eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things God has made. So humans are without excuse. ²¹ Although they knew God, they didn’t honor God as God or thank him. Instead, their reasoning became pointless, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² While they were claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves. ²³ They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that look like mortal humans: birds, animals, and reptiles. ²⁴ So God abandoned them to their hearts’ desires, which led to the moral corruption of degrading their own bodies with each other. ²⁵ They traded God’s truth for a lie, and they worshipped and served the creation instead of the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.