Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹ I will honor you highly, O Yahweh,
    because you have pulled me out of the pit
        and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
² O Yahweh my Elohim,
    I cried out to you for help,
        and you healed me.
³ O Yahweh, you brought me up from the grave.
    You called me back to life
        from among those who had gone into the pit.
⁴ Make music to praise Yahweh, you faithful people who belong to him.
    Remember his holiness by giving thanks.
⁵ His anger lasts only a moment.
    His favor lasts a lifetime.
    Weeping may last for the night,
        but there is a song of joy in the morning.

2 ^[a]“Look how Adonay has covered the people of Zion
    with the cloud of his anger!
    He has thrown down Israel’s beauty from heaven to earth.
    He didn’t even remember his footstool on the day of his anger.
² Adonay swallowed up all of Jacob’s pastures without any pity.
    He tore down the fortified cities of Judah in his fury.
    He brought the kingdom of Judah and its leaders
        down to the ground in dishonor.
³ In his burning anger he cut off all of Israel’s strength.
    He withdrew his right hand when they faced their enemy.
    He burned like a raging fire in the land of Jacob,
        destroying everything around him.
⁴ Like an enemy he bent his bow.
    Like an opponent his right hand held the arrow steady.
    He killed all the beautiful people.
    He poured out his fury like fire on the tent of Zion’s people.
⁵ Adonay became an enemy.
    He swallowed up Israel.
    He swallowed up all of its palaces.
    He destroyed its strongholds.
    He made the people of Judah mourn and moan.
⁶ He stripped his own booth as if it were a garden
    and destroyed his own festivals.
    Yahweh wiped out the memory of festivals and days of worship in Zion.
    He expelled kings and priests because of his fierce anger.
⁷ Adonay rejected his altar and disowned his holy place.
    He handed the walls of Zion’s palaces over to its enemies.
        The enemies made noise in Yahweh’s temple
            as though it were a festival day.
⁸ Yahweh planned to destroy the wall of Zion’s people.
    He marked it off with a line.
    He didn’t take his hand away until he had swallowed it up.
    He made the towers and walls mourn.
        They are completely dejected.

⁹ “Zion’s gates have sunk into the ground.
    The Lord destroyed and shattered the bars across its gates.
    Its king and influential people are scattered among the nations.
    There is no longer any instruction from Moses’ Teachings.
    Its prophets can find no visions from Yahweh.
¹⁰ The respected leaders of Zion’s people sit silently on the ground.
    They throw dirt on their heads and put on sackcloth.
    The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
¹¹ My eyes are worn out with tears.
    My stomach is churning.
    My heart is poured out on the ground
    because of the destruction of my people.
    Little children and infants faint in the city streets.
¹² They’re asking their mothers for some bread and wine
    as they faint like wounded people in the city streets.
        Their lives dwindle away in their mothers’ arms.