Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

2 Why have nations tumultuously assembled? And do peoples meditate vanity?

² Station themselves do kings of the earth, And princes have been united together, Against Jehovah, and against His Messiah:

³ `Let us draw off Their cords, And cast from us Their thick bands.'

⁴ He who is sitting in the heavens doth laugh, The Lord doth mock at them.

⁵ Then doth He speak unto them in His anger, And in His wrath He doth trouble them:

⁶ `And I -- I have anointed My King, Upon Zion -- My holy hill.'

⁷ I declare concerning a statute: Jehovah said unto me, `My Son Thou [art], I to-day have brought thee forth.

⁸ Ask of Me and I give nations -- thy inheritance, And thy possession -- the ends of earth.

⁹ Thou dost rule them with a sceptre of iron, As a vessel of a potter Thou dost crush them.'

¹⁰ And now, O kings, act wisely, Be instructed, O judges of earth,

¹¹ Serve ye Jehovah with fear, And rejoice with trembling.

¹² Kiss the Chosen One, lest He be angry, And ye lose the way, When His anger burneth but a little, O the happiness of all trusting in Him!

19 Thus said Jehovah, `Go, and thou hast got a potter's earthen vessel, and of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests,

² and thou hast gone forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, that [is] at the opening of the gate of the pottery, and hast proclaimed there the words that I speak unto thee,

³ and hast said, Hear a word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: `Lo, I am bringing in evil on this place, at which the ears of every one who is hearing it do tingle,

⁴ because that they have forsaken Me, and make known this place, and make perfume in it to other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and they have filled this place [with] innocent blood,

⁵ and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, that I commanded not, nor spake of, nor did it come up on My heart.

⁶ `Therefore, lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and this place is not called any more, Tophet, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but, Valley of slaughter.

⁷ And I have made void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and have caused them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those seeking their life, and I have given their carcase for food to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth,

⁸ and I have made this city for a desolation, and for a hissing, every passer by it is astonished, and doth hiss for all its plagues.

⁹ And I have caused them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each the flesh of his friend they do eat, in the siege and in the straitness with which straiten them do their enemies, and those seeking their life.

¹⁰ `And thou hast broken the bottle before the eyes of the men who are going with thee,

¹¹ and hast said unto them: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Thus do I break this people and this city, as one breaketh the potter's vessel, that is not able to be repaired again, and in Tophet they bury -- without place to bury;

¹² so I do to this place -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and to its inhabitants, so as to make this city as Tophet;

¹³ and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, have been -- as the place of Tophet -- defiled, even all the houses on whose roofs they have made perfume to all the host of the heavens, so as to pour out oblations to other gods.'

¹⁴ And Jeremiah cometh in from Tophet, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and he standeth in the court of the house of Jehovah, and he saith unto all the people:

¹⁵ `Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am bringing in unto this city, and on all its cities, all the evil that I have spoken against it, for they have hardened their neck -- not to hear My words!'

⁶ These things placing before the brethren, thou shalt be a good ministrant of Jesus Christ, being nourished by the words of the faith, and of the good teaching, which thou didst follow after,

⁷ and the profane and old women's fables reject thou, and exercise thyself unto piety,

⁸ for the bodily exercise is unto little profit, and the piety is to all things profitable, a promise having of the life that now is, and of that which is coming;

⁹ stedfast [is] the word, and of all acceptation worthy;

¹⁰ for for this we both labour and are reproached, because we hope on the living God, who is Saviour of all men -- especially of those believing.

¹¹ Charge these things, and teach;

¹² let no one despise thy youth, but a pattern become thou of those believing in word, in behaviour, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity;

¹³ till I come, give heed to the reading, to the exhortation, to the teaching;

¹⁴ be not careless of the gift in thee, that was given thee through prophecy, with laying on of the hands of the eldership;

¹⁵ of these things be careful; in these things be, that thy advancement may be manifest in all things;

¹⁶ take heed to thyself, and to the teaching; remain in them, for this thing doing, both thyself thou shalt save, and those hearing thee.