Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people!

⁶⁹ “And He has raised up the Horn of Salvation unto us, in the House of His servant David,

⁷⁰ “as He spoke by the mouth of His Holy Prophets. Who were, since the world began, saying,

⁷¹ ‘deliverance from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us.’

⁷² “So that He might show mercy towards our fathers, and remember His Holy Covenant -

⁷³ “the oath, which He swore to our father, Abraham -

⁷⁴ “that he would grant to us. So that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear

⁷⁵ “all the days of our life, in holiness and righteousness before him.

⁷⁶ “And you, child, shall be called the Prophet of the Most High. For you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,

⁷⁷ “to give knowledge of salvation to His people, by the remission of their sins

⁷⁸ “through the tender mercy of our God (whereby the Dayspring from on high has visited us),

⁷⁹ “to give light to those who sit in darkness (and in the shadow of death), and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

21 The Word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Melchiah and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the Priest, saying,

² “Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, so that he may withdraw from us.”

³ Then Jeremiah said, “Thus shall you say to Zedekiah,

⁴ ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babel, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside the walls. And I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

⁵ “And I, myself, will fight against you with an outstretched Hand, and with a mighty Arm, in anger and in wrath and in great indignation.

⁶ “And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷ “And after this,” says the LORD, “I will deliver Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants and the people and such as are left in this city, from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall neither spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”’

⁸ “And to this people you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

⁹ ‘He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he who goes out and falls before the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live. And his life shall be as plunder to him.

¹⁰ ‘For I have set My Face against this city, for calamity and not for good,’ says the LORD, ‘It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babel, and he shall burn it with fire.’”

¹¹ “And say to the House of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD,

¹² O House of David! Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My wrath go out like fire and burn, so that no one can quench it because of the wickedness of your works.

¹³ “Behold, I come against you, O inhabitant of the valley, rock of the plain,” says the LORD, “which says, ‘Who shall come down against us?’ Or ‘Who shall enter into our habitations?’

¹⁴ “But I will visit you according to the fruit of your works,” says the LORD, “and I will kindle a fire in its forest. And it shall devour all around it.”’”

²³ It was necessary, then, that the representations of heavenly things should be purified with such things. But the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴ For Christ has not entered into the Holy Places that are made with hands - which are representations of the true things - but into Heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God for us.

²⁵ Not that He should offer himself often, as the High Priest entered into the Holy Place every year with others’ blood.

²⁶ For then He would have had to suffer often, since the foundation of the world. But now, in the end of the world, He has appeared once, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

²⁷ And as much as it has been appointed to man that he shall die once (and after that comes the Judgment),

²⁸ so Christ was once offered to take away the sins of many. And to those who look for Him, He shall appear a second time - without sin - for salvation.