Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer for God to Be Near
For the director of music. A song of David.
13 How long will you forget me, Lord?
How long will you hide from me? Forever?
2 How long must I worry?
How long must I feel sad in my heart?
How long will my enemy win over me?
3 Lord, look at me.
Answer me, my God.
Tell me, or I will die.
4 Otherwise my enemy will say, “I have won!”
Those against me will rejoice that I’ve been defeated.
5 I trust in your love.
My heart is happy because you saved me.
6 I sing to the Lord
because he has taken care of me.
Jerusalem Will Be Saved
12 This message is the word of the Lord to Israel. The Lord stretched out the skies. He laid the foundations of the earth. He put man’s spirit in him. And the Lord says this: 2 “I will make Jerusalem like a cup of poison to the nations around her. They will come and attack Jerusalem and Judah. 3 One day all the nations on earth will come together to attack Jerusalem. But I will make Jerusalem like a heavy rock. Anyone who tries to move it will get hurt. 4 At that time I will scare every horse. And its rider will panic,” says the Lord. “I will watch over Judah. But I will blind all the horses of the enemies. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong. This is because the Lord of heaven’s armies is their God.’
6 “At that time I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire burning a stack of wood. They will be like a fire burning straw. They will destroy all the people around them left and right. But Jerusalem will remain safe.
7 “The Lord will save the people of Judah first. Then the people in Jerusalem, David’s city, won’t have more honor than Judah. 8 At that time the Lord will protect the people in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest of them will be strong like David. And the family of David will be like God. They will be like an angel of the Lord leading the people. 9 At that time I will go to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
Crying for the One They Stabbed
10 “I will give David’s family and people in Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and mercy. They will look at me, the one they have stabbed. And they will cry like someone crying over the death of an only child. They will be as sad as someone who has lost a firstborn son. 11 At that time there will be much crying in Jerusalem. It will be like the crying for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will cry. Each family will cry alone. The family of David and their wives will cry. The family of Nathan and their wives will cry. 13 The family of Levi and their wives will cry. The family of Shimei and their wives will cry. 14 And all the rest of the families and their wives will cry.
13 “At that time a fountain will be opened. It will be for David’s descendants and for the people of Jerusalem. It will cleanse them of their sins and wrongs.”
9 “You must be careful. People will arrest you and take you to court. They will beat you in their synagogues. You will be forced to stand before kings and governors, to tell them about me. This will happen to you because you follow me. 10 But before these things happen, the Good News must be told to all people. 11 When you are arrested and judged, don’t worry about what you should say. Say the things God gives you to say at that time. It will not really be you speaking. It will be the Holy Spirit.
12 “Brothers will turn against their own brothers and give them over to be killed. Fathers will turn against their own children and give them over to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and cause their parents to be killed. 13 All people will hate you because you follow me. But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved.
14 “You will see ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’[a] You will see this thing standing in the place where it should not be.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. 15 If a person is on the roof[b] of his house, he must not go down to take anything out of his house. 16 If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat. 17 At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies. 18 Pray that these things will not happen in winter. 19 This is because those days will be full of trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning, when God made the world. And nothing as bad will ever happen again. 20 God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help his special people whom he has chosen. 21 At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them. 22 False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great wonders and miracles. They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will do these things to try to fool them, if that is possible. 23 So be careful. For I have warned you about all this before it happens.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.