Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶⁸ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to visit his people and has redeemed them. ⁶⁹ He is sending us a Mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, ⁷⁰ just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago— ⁷¹ someone to save us from our enemies, from all who hate us.

^72-73 “He has been merciful to our ancestors, yes, to Abraham himself, by remembering his sacred promise to him, ⁷⁴ and by granting us the privilege of serving God fearlessly, freed from our enemies, ⁷⁵ and by making us holy and acceptable, ready to stand in his presence forever.

⁷⁶ “And you, my little son, shall be called the prophet of the glorious God, for you will prepare the way for the Messiah. ⁷⁷ You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. ⁷⁸ All this will be because the mercy of our God is very tender, and heaven’s dawn is about to break upon us, ⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

21 Then King Zedekiah sent Pashhur (son of Malchiah) and Zephaniah the priest (son of Maaseiah) to Jeremiah and begged, “Ask the Lord to help us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has declared war on us! ² Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to us and do a mighty miracle as in olden times^[a] and force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his forces.”

^3-4 Jeremiah replied, “Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him the Lord God of Israel says, I will make all your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans besieging you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city, ⁵ and I myself will fight against you, for I am very angry. ⁶ And I will send a terrible plague on this city, and both men and animals shall die. ⁷ And finally I will deliver King Zedekiah himself and all the remnant left in the city into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to slaughter them without pity or mercy.

⁸ “Tell these people: This is what the Lord says! Take your choice of life or death! ⁹ Stay here in Jerusalem and die—slaughtered by your enemies, killed by starvation and disease—or go out and surrender to the Chaldean army and live. ¹⁰ For I have set my face against this city; I will be its enemy and not its friend, says the Lord. It shall be captured by the king of Babylon and he shall reduce it to ashes.

¹¹ “And to the king of Judah, the Lord says: ¹² I am ready to judge you because of all the evil you are doing. Quick! Give justice to these you judge! Begin doing what is right before my burning fury flashes out upon you like a fire no man can quench. ¹³ I will fight against this city of Jerusalem that boasts, ‘We are safe; no one can touch us here!’ ¹⁴ And I myself will destroy you for your sinfulness, says the Lord. I will light a fire in the forests that will burn up everything in its path.”

²³ That is why the sacred tent down here on earth and everything in it—all copied from things in heaven—all had to be made pure by Moses in this way, by being sprinkled with the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven, of which these down here are copies, were made pure with far more precious offerings.

²⁴ For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Friend. It was not in the earthly place of worship that he did this, for that was merely a copy of the real temple in heaven. ²⁵ Nor has he offered himself again and again, as the high priest down here on earth offers animal blood in the Holy of Holies each year. ²⁶ If that had been necessary, then he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all, at the end of the age, to put away the power of sin forever by dying for us.

²⁷ And just as it is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸ so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and he will come again, but not to deal again with our sins.

This time he will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for him.