Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Lord Will Restore Israel
30 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. 2 The Lord, the God of Israel, says,
Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity. I will restore them to the land I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it, says the Lord.
4 These are words the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 This is what the Lord says.
“We have heard cries of fear,
of terror, and not of peace.”
6 Ask and see.
Can a man give birth to a child?
Why then do I see every strong man
with his hands on his belly like a woman in labor?
Why has every face turned pale?
7 That day is so terrible that there is none like it!
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
but he will be saved out of it.
8 In that day, declares the Lord of Armies,
I will break the yoke off your neck.
I will tear away your bonds.
Strangers will no longer enslave Israel,
9 but they will serve the Lord their God
and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 Therefore do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, declares the Lord.
Do not be terrified, Israel,
because I will certainly save you from a faraway place.
I will save your descendants from the land where they are captive.
Jacob will return.
He will enjoy quiet and be at ease,
and no one will make him afraid.
11 I am with you to save you, declares the Lord.
I will completely destroy all the nations
among which I have scattered you,
but I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you with justice,[a]
yet I will not regard you as entirely innocent.
12 So this is what the Lord says.
Your wound is incurable.
Your injury is severe.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
no one to bind your wounds.
There are no healing medicines.
14 All who loved you have forgotten you.
They do not ask about you.
I have wounded you as an enemy would.
I have punished you as the cruel would,
because your guilt is so great,
because your sins are so many.
15 Why are you crying over your injury,
over your incurable wound?
It is because of your great guilt,
because of your many sins,
that I have done these things to you.
16 Yet all who devour you will be devoured.
All your enemies, every one of them, will go into captivity.
Those who plunder you will be plundered.
All who prey on you will become prey.
17 For I will restore your health,
and I will heal your wounds, declares the Lord,
because they have called you an outcast,
saying, “It is Zion—for whom no one cares.”
5 The one who was seated on the throne said to me, “Look, I am making everything new!” He also said, “Write, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me:
It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
To anyone who is thirsty,
I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.
7 The one who overcomes
will inherit these things.
I will be his God,
and he will be my son.
8 But those who are cowardly, unbelieving, detestable,
murderers, adulterers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all the liars
will have their share in the lake burning with fire and sulfur,
which is the second death.
The New Jerusalem
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls that were filled with the seven last plagues came and spoke with me. He said, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 He carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain, and he showed me the[a] Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It has the glory of God. Its radiance is similar to a very precious stone, like crystal-clear jasper.
12 It has a large, high wall. It has twelve gates. Twelve angels are at the gates, and twelve names are engraved on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 Three gates are on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. 14 The city’s wall also has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the Lamb’s twelve apostles.
15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod so that he could measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square. Its length and width are equal. He measured the city with the measuring rod: 12,000 stadia.[b] Its length, width, and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall by human measurement, which was what the angel used: 144 cubits.
18 The wall is made of jasper, and the city is pure gold, like pure glass. 19 The foundations of the city’s wall had been adorned with every kind of precious stone.
The first foundation is jasper,
the second sapphire,
the third agate,
the fourth emerald,
20 the fifth onyx,
the sixth ruby,[c]
the seventh diamond,[d]
the eighth beryl,
the ninth topaz,
the tenth turquoise,[e]
the eleventh jacinth,
the twelfth amethyst.
21 The twelve gates are twelve pearls. Each of the gates is made out of one pearl. And the street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God has given it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations[f] will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory[g] into it. 25 There is no day when its gates will be shut, for there will be no night in that place. 26 They will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing that is unclean and no one who does what is detestable or who tells lies will ever enter it, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.