Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
10 Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor; let them be caught in the devices that they have contrived.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth.
4 The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6 He hath said in his heart, “I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.”
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud; under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages; in secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor; he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net.
10 He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, “God hath forgotten; He hideth His face, He will never see it.”
12 Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Thine hand! Forget not the humble.
13 Why doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, “Thou wilt not keep account.”
14 But Thou hast seen it, for Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with Thy hand. The poor committeth himself unto Thee; Thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break Thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until Thou find none.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever; the heathen have perished out of His land.
17 Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble; Thou wilt prepare their heart, Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear,
18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’S house, and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!
3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.”
5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,
6 if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt,
7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 “‘Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not,
10 and come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered” — to do all these abominations?
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
12 “‘But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not,
14 therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.’
7 Therefore as the Holy Ghost saith: “Today if ye will hear His voice,
8 harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘They do always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter into My rest.’”
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is still called “today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the confidence we had in the beginning steadfast unto the end,
15 while it is said, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke, however not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter into His rest, but to those who believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
4 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left to us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter into rest, as He said, “As I have sworn in My wrath, ‘If they shall enter into My rest’”—although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”
5 And again in this place: “If they shall enter into My rest”—.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of unbelief,
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David “today,” after so long a time, as it is said, “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterwards have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.
10 For he that has entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall according to the same example of unbelief.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.