Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

KAPH

The Lord tells Jeremiah how he must live

16 The Lord said to me, ² ‘You must not marry in this place. You must not have sons or daughters here. ³ I will tell you what will happen to children who are born here and what will happen to their parents. ⁴ Terrible disease will kill them. Nobody will weep for them. Nobody will bury them. Their bodies will lie on the ground like dung. Either war or famine will kill them. Birds and wild animals will come to eat their dead bodies.’

⁵ The Lord also said to me, ‘Do not go into a house where they are eating a funeral meal. Do not join with them to weep because someone in the family has died. I have removed my blessing and my faithful love from these people. I will no longer be kind to them. That is what I say. ⁶ When people die, nobody will bury them, whether they are rich people or poor people. Nobody will weep for them. People will not cut their bodies because they are upset. They will not cut the hair from their heads. ⁷ Nobody will take food to comfort families when someone has died. Even if their mother or their father has died, nobody will bring any wine to comfort them.

⁸ Do not join with people who are eating a feast because they are happy. Do not go into their house to eat and drink with them. ⁹ I, the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, tell you what I will do. I will stop their happy songs and their marriage parties in this place. You will see this happen while you are still alive.

¹⁰ Tell the people everything that I have said. Then they will ask you, “Why has the Lord told us that he will punish us so much? What wrong things have we done? What sin have we done against the Lord, our God?” ¹¹ Then you must tell them what I say: “It is because your ancestors turned against me. They went to other gods. They worshipped and they served those gods. They turned against me and they did not obey my law. ¹² And you have done even more wicked things than your ancestors! You do any wicked thing that you want to do. You refuse to change. You do not obey me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land. I will send you away to a land that you and your ancestors never knew. There you will worship other gods, as much as you like. I will no longer help you.” ’

Be patient until the Lord comes again

⁷ So, my Christian friends, be patient until the Lord Jesus returns. Think about how a farmer is patient. He waits for the ground to give him valuable food to eat. He waits patiently for the rain to come in the autumn and in the spring. ⁸ You also must be patient, because the Lord will return soon. Be strong as you continue to trust him.

⁹ My Christian friends, do not complain against each other. If you do, God will punish you. So be careful! He is the Judge and he is ready now to judge people.

¹⁰ Think about how God's prophets were also patient. They spoke messages on behalf of the Lord. Many troubles happened to them but they were patient. So, my Christian friends, you should copy their example. ¹¹ We know that God blessed people who were like that. They continued to trust God when trouble happened to them. You have heard about Job. He waited patiently for God to help him in his troubles. You know how the Lord helped him in the end. Because of that, we see that the Lord God is very kind and he helps us.

¹² Here is another important thing to remember, my Christian friends. When you want to make a strong promise, never use extra words. Do not say, ‘I promise by heaven,’ or ‘I promise by the earth.’ Do not use any extra words like that. When you say ‘yes,’ that should be enough. When you say ‘no,’ that should also be enough. If you say more than that, God will say that you are guilty.