Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

79 O God, your land has been conquered by the heathen nations. Your Temple is defiled, and Jerusalem is a heap of ruins. ² The bodies of your people lie exposed—food for birds and animals. ³ The enemy has butchered the entire population of Jerusalem; blood has flowed like water. No one is left even to bury them. ⁴ The nations all around us scoff. They heap contempt on us.

⁵ O Jehovah, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? Will your jealousy burn till every hope is gone? ⁶ Pour out your wrath upon the godless nations—not on us—on kingdoms that refuse to pray, that will not call upon your name! ⁷ For they have destroyed your people Israel, invading every home. ⁸ Oh, do not hold us guilty for our former sins! Let your tenderhearted mercies meet our needs, for we are brought low to the dust. ⁹ Help us, God of our salvation! Help us for the honor of your name. Oh, save us and forgive our sins.

¹⁴ And now the Lord says this to the evil nations, the nations surrounding the land God gave his people Israel: See, I will force you from your land just as Judah will be forced from hers; ¹⁵ but afterwards I will return and have compassion on all of you and will bring you home to your own land again, each man to his inheritance. ¹⁶ And if these heathen nations quickly learn my people’s ways and claim me as their God instead of Baal (whom they taught my people to worship), then they shall be strong among my people. ¹⁷ But any nation refusing to obey me will be expelled again and finished, says the Lord.

13 The Lord said to me, Go and buy a linen loincloth and wear it, but don’t wash it—don’t put it in water at all. ² So I bought the loincloth and put it on. ³ Then the Lord’s message came to me again. This time he said, ⁴ Take the loincloth out to the Euphrates River and hide it in a hole in the rocks.

⁵ So I did; I hid it as the Lord had told me to. ⁶ Then, a long time afterwards, the Lord said: Go out to the river again and get the loincloth. ⁷ And I did; I dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was mildewed and falling apart. It was utterly useless!

^8-9 Then the Lord said: This illustrates the way that I will rot the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This evil nation refuses to listen to me and follows its own evil desires, and worships idols; therefore, it shall become as this loincloth—good for nothing. ¹¹ Even as a loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so I made Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the Lord. They were my people, an honor to my name. But then they turned away.

3 Then what’s the use of being a Jew? Are there any special benefits for them from God? Is there any value in the Jewish circumcision ceremony? ² Yes, being a Jew has many advantages.

First of all, God trusted them with his laws so that they could know and do his will.^{[a] 3} True, some of them were unfaithful, but just because they broke their promises to God, does that mean God will break his promises? ⁴ Of course not! Though everyone else in the world is a liar, God is not. Do you remember what the book of Psalms says about this?^[b] That God’s words will always prove true and right, no matter who questions them.

⁵ “But,” some say, “our breaking faith with God is good, our sins serve a good purpose, for people will notice how good God is when they see how bad we are. Is it fair, then, for him to punish us when our sins are helping him?” (That is the way some people talk.) ⁶ God forbid! Then what kind of God would he be, to overlook sin? How could he ever condemn anyone? ⁷ For he could not judge and condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty brought him glory by pointing up his honesty in contrast to my lies. ⁸ If you follow through with that idea you come to this: the worse we are, the better God likes it! But the damnation of those who say such things is just. Yet some claim that this is what I preach!