Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ 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!”

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 Yahweh 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 Adonay, 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 Adonay.
        Lift up your hands to him in prayer
            for the life of your little children
                who faint from hunger at every street corner.”

²⁰ “O Yahweh, 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 Adonay’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 Yahweh’s anger.
    My enemy has murdered the children I nursed and raised.”