Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 123

A Song of Ascents.

False Trust in the Temple

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ² Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim there this word:

Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter at these gates to worship the Lord. ³ Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” ⁵ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your deeds, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your harm, ⁷ then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. ⁸ Indeed, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

⁹ Shall you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, ¹⁰ and come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered,” so that you may do all these abominations? ¹¹ Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Certainly, even I have seen it, says the Lord.

¹² But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to this house, which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. ¹⁵ I will cast you out of My sight as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

⁸ Now you are full, now you are rich; you have begun reigning as kings without us, and I wish to God you reigned, so that we also might reign with you. ⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us, the apostles, last, as if we were sentenced to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised. ¹¹ Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. ¹² We labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³ Being slandered, we encourage. We are made as the filth of the world, and are the refuse of all things to this day.