Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
79 O God, the heathen have come into Your inheritance. They have defiled Your Holy Temple and made Jerusalem heaps of stones.
2 The dead bodies of Your servants they have given to be food to birds of the heaven, and the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the Earth.
3 They have shed their blood like waters, all around Jerusalem; and there was no one to bury them.
4 We are a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
5 LORD, how long will You be angry? Forever? Shall Your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath upon the heathen who have not known You, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon Your Name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and made His dwelling place desolate.
8 Do not remember our former iniquities against us, but let Your tender mercies come quickly to meet us; for we are in great misery.
9 Help us, O God of Our Salvation, for the Glory of Your Name; and deliver us and be merciful to our sins for Your Name’s sake.
8 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of their 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 “And they shall spread them before the Sun, and the Moon, and all the host of Heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and whom they have followed, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered or be buried, but shall be as dung upon the Earth.
3 “And death shall be desired rather than life by all the residue that remains of this wicked family, who remain in all the places where I have scattered them,” says the LORD of Hosts.’
4 “You shall also say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away and not turn again?
5 “Why has this people of Jerusalem backslid in a perpetual apostasy? They gave themselves to deceit and would not return.
6 “I listened and heard. No one spoke aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to their running, as the horse rushes into the battle.
7 “Even the stork in the air knows her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
8 “How do you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us?’ Lo, certainly in vain it is made, the pen of the scribes.
9 “The wise men are ashamed. They are afraid and taken. Lo, they have rejected the Word of the LORD. And what wisdom is in them?
10 “Therefore, I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone, from the least to the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the Prophet to the Priest, everyone deals falsely.
11 “For they have healed the hurt of the Daughter of My people with sweet words, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed. Nor could they have any shame. Therefore, they shall fall among the slain when I shall visit them. They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.’
13 “I will surely consume them,” says the LORD.’ “There shall be no grapes on the vine or figs on the fig tree. And the leaf shall fade. And the things that I have given them shall depart from them.”’”
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He Who did not spare His own Son - but gave Him up for us all - how shall He not, with Him, also give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s chosen? God is the One who justifies.
34 Who shall condemn? It is Christ, Who died - indeed, or rather, Who is risen again - and Who is also at the right hand of God, interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ; shall tribulation or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: “For your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Nevertheless, 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 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.
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