Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
137 By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and cried
as we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our lyres on willow trees.
3 It was there that those who had captured us demanded that we sing.
Those who guarded us wanted us to entertain them.
⌞They said,⌟ “Sing a song from Zion for us!”
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget ⌞how to play the lyre⌟.
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I don’t remember you,
if I don’t consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
7 O Lord, remember the people of Edom.
Remember what they did the day Jerusalem ⌞was captured⌟.
They said, “Tear it down! Tear it down to its foundation.”
8 You destructive people of Babylon,
blessed is the one who pays you back
with the same treatment you gave us.
9 Blessed is the one who grabs your little children
and smashes them against a rock.
The Prophet Speaks Out: the Lord Destroyed You
13 “What example can I give you?
What parallel can I show you, people of Jerusalem?
What comparison can I make that will comfort you, beloved people of Zion?
Your wounds are as deep as the sea.
Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets saw misleading visions about you.
They painted a good picture of you.
They didn’t expose your guilt in order to make things better again.
They gave you false prophecies that misled you.
15 Everyone who walks along the road shakes a fist at you.
They hiss and shake their heads at Jerusalem’s people:
‘Is this the city they used to call absolutely beautiful,
the joy of the whole world?’
16 All your enemies gawk at you.
They hiss and grit their teeth.
They say, ‘We’ve swallowed it up.
Yes, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.
At last we have seen it!’
17 The Lord has accomplished what he had planned to do.
He carried out the threat he announced long ago.
He tore you down without any pity, ⌞Jerusalem⌟.
He made your enemies gloat over you.
He raised the weapons of your opponents.
18 The hearts of Jerusalem’s people
cried out to the Lord, the wall of Zion’s people.
Let your tears run down like a river day and night.
Don’t let them stop.
Don’t let your eyes rest.
19 Get up! Cry out at night, every hour on the hour.
Pour your heart out like water in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him ⌞in prayer⌟
for the life of your little children
who faint from hunger at every street corner.”
Zion Speaks Out: the Lord Destroyed Me
20 “O Lord, look and consider:
Have you ever treated anyone like this?
Should women eat their own children,
the children they have nursed?
Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s holy place?
21 Young and old lie on the ground in the streets.
My young women and men are cut down by swords.
You killed them on the day of your anger.
You slaughtered them without any pity.
22 You have invited those who terrorize me on every side,
as though they were invited to a festival.
No one escaped or survived on the day of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has murdered the children I nursed and raised.”
Those Who Believe in Jesus Are God’s Children
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God. Everyone who loves the Father also loves his children. 2 We know that we love God’s children when we love God by obeying his commandments. 3 To love God means that we obey his commandments. Obeying his commandments isn’t difficult 4 because everyone who has been born from God has won the victory over the world. Our faith is what wins the victory over the world. 5 Who wins the victory over the world? Isn’t it the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Conclusion
13 I’ve written this to those who believe in the Son of God so that they will know that they have eternal life.
14 We are confident that God listens to us if we ask for anything that has his approval. 15 We know that he listens to our requests. So we know that we already have what we ask him for.
16 If you see another believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, you should pray that God would give that person life. This is true for those who commit sins that don’t lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I’m not telling you to pray about that. 17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that don’t lead to death.
18 We know that those who have been born from God don’t go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one can’t harm them.
19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we know the real God. We are in the one who is real, his Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the real God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from false gods.
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