Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
94 The Lord is a God who punishes people.
God, come punish them.
2 You are the judge of the whole earth.
Give proud people the punishment they deserve.
3 Lord, how long will the wicked have their fun?
How much longer?
4 How much longer will those criminals
brag about the evil they did?
5 Lord, they hurt your people
and make them suffer.
6 They kill widows and foreigners living in our country.
They murder orphans.
7 And they say the Lord does not see them doing these evil things!
They say the God of Jacob does not know what is happening.
8 You evil people are foolish.
When will you learn your lesson?
You are so stupid!
You must try to understand.
9 God made our ears,
so surely he can hear what is happening!
He made our eyes,
so surely he can see you!
10 The one who disciplines nations will surely correct you.
He is the one who teaches us everything.
11 The Lord knows what people are thinking.
He knows that their thoughts are like a puff of wind.
12 Lord, great blessings belong to those you discipline,
to those you teach from your law.
13 You help them stay calm when trouble comes.
You will help them until the wicked are put in their graves.
14 The Lord will not leave his people.
He will not leave them without help.
15 Justice will return and bring fairness.
And those who want to do right will be there to see it.
16 No one helped me fight against the wicked.
No one stood with me against those who do evil.
17 And if the Lord had not helped me,
I would have been silenced by death.
18 I know I was ready to fall,
but, Lord, your faithful love supported me.
19 I was very worried and upset,
but you comforted me and made me happy!
20 You don’t help crooked judges.
They use the law to make life hard for the people.
21 They attack those who do right.
They say innocent people are guilty and put them to death.
22 But the Lord is my place of safety, high on the mountain.
God, my Rock, is my safe place!
23 He will punish those evil judges for the bad things they did.
He will destroy them because they sinned.
The Lord our God will destroy them.
The Evil of the People of Judah
5 The Lord says, “Walk the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and think about these things. Search the public squares of the city. See if you can find one good person, one who does honest things and who searches for the truth. If you find one good person, I will forgive Jerusalem. 2 The people make promises and say, ‘As the Lord lives.’ But they don’t really mean it!”
3 Lord, I know that you want people
to be loyal to you.
You hit the people of Judah,
but they did not feel any pain.
You destroyed them,
but they refused to learn their lesson.
They became very stubborn.
They refused to be sorry for the bad things they did.
4 But I said to myself,
“It must be only the poor who are so foolish.
They have not learned the way of the Lord.
They don’t know the teachings of their God.
5 So I will go to the leaders of Judah.
I will talk to them.
Surely the leaders know the way of the Lord.
Surely they know the law of their God.”
But the leaders had all joined together
to break away from serving God.
6 So a lion from the forest will attack them.
A wolf from the desert will kill them.
A leopard is hiding near their cities,
to tear to pieces anyone who comes out.
That’s because the people have sinned again and again.
Many times they have wandered away from God.
7 God says, “People of Judah, why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me.
They made promises to idols that are not really gods!
I gave your children everything they needed,
but they were still unfaithful to me!
They spent their time with prostitutes.
8 They are like horses that have had plenty to eat and are ready to mate.
They are like a horse that is calling its neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?”
This message is from the Lord.
“You know I should punish a nation such as this.
I should give it the punishment it deserves.
10 “Go along the rows of Judah’s grapevines.
Cut down the vines. (But don’t completely destroy them.)
Cut off all their branches, because they don’t belong to the Lord.
11 The family of Israel and the family of Judah
have been unfaithful to me in every way.”
This message is from the Lord.
12 “Those people lied about the Lord.
They said, ‘He will not do anything to us.
Nothing bad will happen to us.
We will never see an army attack us.
We will never starve.’
13 The prophets are only empty wind.[a]
The word of God is not in them.[b]
Bad things will happen to them.”
14 The Lord God All-Powerful said these things:
“The people said I would not punish them.
So, Jeremiah, the words I give you will be like fire,
and these people will be like wood.
That fire will burn them up completely.”
15 Family of Israel, this message is from the Lord.
“I will soon bring a nation from far away to attack you.
It is an old nation;
it is an ancient nation.
The people of that nation speak a language that you do not know.
You cannot understand what they say.
16 Their arrow bags are like open graves.
All their men are strong soldiers.
17 They will eat all the crops that you gathered.
They will eat all your food.
They will destroy your sons and daughters.
They will eat your flocks and your herds.
They will eat your grapes and your figs.
They will destroy your strong cities with their swords.
They will destroy the strong cities that you trust in.”
18 Timothy, you are like a son to me. What I am telling you to do agrees with the prophecies[a] that were told about you in the past. I want you to remember those prophecies and fight the good fight of faith. 19 Continue to trust in God and do what you know is right. Some people have not done this, and their faith is now in ruins. 20 Hymenaeus and Alexander are men like that. I have given them to Satan so that they will learn not to speak against God.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International