Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Dirge and a Prayer for Israel, Destroyed by Enemies
A Psalm of Asaph.
79 O God, the [a]nations have come into (A)Your inheritance;
Your holy temple they have defiled;
(B)They have laid Jerusalem [b]in heaps.
2 (C)The dead bodies of Your servants
They have given as food for the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
3 Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem,
And there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a reproach to our (D)neighbors,
A scorn and derision to those who are around us.
Jeremiah Mourns for His People
8 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2 They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and (A)which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered (B)nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. 3 Then (C)death shall be chosen rather than life by all the [a]residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.
The Peril of False Teaching
4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
5 Why has this people (D)slidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
(E)They hold fast to deceit,
(F)They refuse to return.
6 (G)I listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
(H)No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.
7 “Even (I)the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But (J)My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
(K)And the law of the Lord is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
9 (L)The wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
So (M)what wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore (N)I will give their wives to others,
And their fields to those who will inherit them;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to (O)covetousness;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
11 For they have (P)healed the hurt of the daughter of My people [b]slightly,
Saying, (Q)‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
12 Were they (R)ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed,
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
In the time of their punishment
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? (A)If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 (B)He who did not spare His own Son, but (C)delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? (D)It is God who justifies. 34 (E)Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, (F)who is even at the right hand of God, (G)who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
(H)“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 (I)Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor (J)principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.