Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³⁷ O Lord, you are just and your punishments are fair. ¹³⁸ Your demands are just and right. ¹³⁹ I am indignant and angry because of the way my enemies have disregarded your laws. ¹⁴⁰ I have thoroughly tested your promises, and that is why I love them so much. ¹⁴¹ I am worthless and despised, but I don’t despise your laws.

¹⁴² Your justice is eternal for your laws are perfectly fair. ¹⁴³ In my distress and anguish your commandments comfort me. ¹⁴⁴ Your laws are always fair; help me to understand them, and I shall live.

¹⁴ Yes, the day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good I promised them.

¹⁵ At that time I will bring to the throne the true Son of David,^[a] and he shall rule justly. ¹⁶ In that day the people of Judah and Jerusalem shall live in safety and their motto will be, “The Lord is our righteousness!” ¹⁷ For the Lord declares that from then on, David shall forever have an heir sitting on the throne of Israel. ¹⁸ And there shall always be Levites to offer burnt offerings and meal offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.

¹⁹ Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ^20-21 If you can break my covenant with the day and with the night so that day and night don’t come on their usual schedule, only then will my covenant with David, my servant, be broken so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and my covenant with the Levite priests, my ministers, is noncancelable. ²² And as the stars cannot be counted nor the sand upon the seashores measured, so the descendants of David my servant and the line of the Levites who minister to me will be multiplied.

²³ The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again and said: ²⁴ Have you heard what people are saying?—that the Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them! They are sneering and saying that Israel isn’t worthy to be counted as a nation. ^25-26 But this is the Lord’s reply: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws of night and day, of earth and sky. I will never abandon the Jews, or David my servant, or change the plan that his child will someday rule these descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead I will restore their prosperity and have mercy on them.

1 Dear friends: This letter is from me, Paul, appointed by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger; and from our dear brother Timothy. We are writing to all of you Christians there in Corinth and throughout Greece.^{[a] 2} May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ mightily bless each one of you and give you peace.

^3-4 What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. ⁵ You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. ^6-7 We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.

⁸ I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. ⁹ We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. ¹⁰ And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. ¹¹ But you must help us too by praying for us. For much thanks and praise will go to God from you who see his wonderful answers to your prayers for our safety!