Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my mourning, the wormwood and the bitterness.

²⁰ My soul has remembered them and is humbled in me.

²¹ I consider this in my heart; therefore, I have hope.

²² It is because of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed. His compassions do not fail.

²³ They are renewed every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!

²⁴ “The LORD is my portion;” says my soul, “therefore, I will hope in Him!”

²⁵ The LORD is good to those who trust in Him, to the soul that seeks Him.

²⁶ It is good to wait, watchfully yet silently, for the salvation of the LORD.

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. And he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

² And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, the same as all that Jehoiakim had done.

³ For the following happened in Jerusalem and Judah at that time, until He had cast them out from His presence, because of the wrath of the LORD. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babel.

⁴ Now, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it and built forts against it all around.

⁵ So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶ Now, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no more food for the people of the land.

⁷ Then, the city was broken up. And all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (though the Chaldeans were near the city, all around). And they went by way of the wilderness.

⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and took Zedekiah in the desert of Jericho. And all the army was scattered from him.

⁹ Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of Babel, to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.

¹⁰ And the king of Babel killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

¹¹ Then, he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. And the king of Babel bound him in chains and carried him to Babel and put him in prison until the day of his death.

⁸ “And to the angel of the Church of the Smyrnians write: ‘These things says He who is first and last, Who was dead and is alive:

⁹ “I know your works and tribulation and poverty. But you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰ “Fear none of those things which you shall suffer. Behold, it shall come to pass that the devil shall cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tried. And you shall have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful to the death, and I will give you the crown of life.’

¹¹ “Let he who has an ear, hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. He that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.