Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

102 O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You.

² Do not hide Your face from me in the time of my trouble. Incline Your ears to me when I call. Hurry to hear me.

³ For my days are consumed like smoke; and my bones are burnt like a hearth.

⁴ My heart is stricken and withered, like grass, because I forgot to eat my bread.

⁵ Because of the voice of my groaning, my bones cling to my skin.

⁶ I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I am like an owl of the deserts.

⁷ I watch and am as a sparrow, alone upon the house top.

⁸ My enemies revile me daily. Those who rage against me have sworn against me.

⁹ Surely, I have eaten ashes as bread and mingled my drink with weeping

¹⁰ because of Your indignation and Your wrath. For You have heaved me up and cast me down.

¹¹ My days are like a shadow that fades; and I am withered like grass.

¹² But You, O LORD, remain forever, and Your remembrance from generation to generation.

¹³ You will arise and have mercy upon Zion. For the time to have mercy thereon, for the appointed time, has come.

¹⁴ For Your servants, delight in the stones thereof and have pity on the dust thereof.

¹⁵ Then the heathen shall fear the Name of the LORD, and all the kings of the Earth Your Glory,

¹⁶ when the LORD shall build up Zion and shall appear in His Glory

¹⁷ and shall turn to the prayer of the desolate and not despise their prayer.

⁸ “For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Do not let your prophets and your soothsayers who are among you, deceive you or listen to your dreams which you dream.

⁹ ‘For they prophesy a lie to you in My Name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.

¹⁰ ‘But thus says the LORD: that after seventy years are completed at Babel, I will attend to you, and perform My good promise toward you, and cause you to return to this place.

¹¹ ‘For I know the thoughts that I have thought towards you,’ says the LORD, ‘the thoughts of peace and not of trouble, to give you a future and hope.

¹² ‘Then you shall cry to Me. And you shall go and pray to Me. And I will hear you.

¹³ ‘And you shall seek Me, and find, because you shall seek Me with all your heart.

¹⁴ ‘And I will be found by you,’ says the LORD, ‘and I will turn away your captivity. And I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have cast you,’ says the LORD, ‘and will bring you back to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive

¹⁵ ‘because you have said, “The LORD has raised up Prophets for us in Babel.”’

¹⁶ “Therefore thus says the LORD of the king who sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people who dwell in this city, your brethren, who have not gone forth with you into captivity,

¹⁷ “thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘Behold, I will send the sword upon them, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

¹⁸ ‘And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence. And I will make them a terror to all kingdoms of the Earth, a curse and astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have cast them,

¹⁹ ‘because they have not heard My Words’ says the LORD, ‘which I sent to them by My servants, the Prophets, rising up early and sending. But you would not hear,’ says the LORD.

²⁰ “Therefore, hear the Word of the LORD, all you of the captivity whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babel.

²¹ “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy lies to you in My Name: ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel. And he shall kill them before your eyes.

²² ‘And all those from Judah among the captivity, who are in Babel, shall take up this curse against them, and say, “The LORD make you like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babel burnt in the fire,”

²³ ‘Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbor’s wives, and have spoken lying words in My Name, which I have not Commanded them. I know it, and testify it,’ says the LORD.

²⁴ And as he answered for himself this way, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul! You are beside yourself! Great learning has made you mad!”

²⁵ But he said, “I am not mad, O noble Festus. Rather, I speak the words of truth and soberness.

²⁶ “For the King knows of these things, before whom I also speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner.

²⁷ “O King Agrippa! Do you believe the Prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸ Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

²⁹ Then Paul said, “I pray to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains!”