Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

LAMED.

⁸⁹ ¶ For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in the heavens.

⁹⁰ Thy truth is from generation to generation; thou hast established the earth, and it perseveres.

⁹¹ They persevere unto this day by thy ordinance; for they are all thy slaves.

⁹² ¶ Unless thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction.

⁹³ ¶ I will never forget thy precepts; for with them thou hast caused me to live.

⁹⁴ ¶ I am thine, keep me; for I have sought thy precepts.

⁹⁵ ¶ The wicked have waited for me to destroy me, but I will consider thy testimonies.

⁹⁶ ¶ I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

¹¹ When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,

¹² then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber; and, behold, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

¹³ Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

¹⁴ Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand and came unto them.

¹⁵ And they said unto him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.

¹⁶ Now it came to pass when they had heard all the words, each one turned to his companion in fear, and they said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

¹⁷ And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth?

¹⁸ Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.

¹⁹ Then the princes said unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.

²⁰ ¶ And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe and told all the words in the ears of the king.

²¹ So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read in it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.

²² Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.

²³ And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

²⁴ Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his slaves that heard all these words.

²⁵ Nevertheless when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah made intercession to the king that he not burn the roll; he would not hear them.

²⁶ But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them.

² Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

³ I speak this not to condemn you, for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and live together with us.

⁴ Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

⁵ ¶ For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

⁶ Nevertheless God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

⁷ and not by his coming only, but by the consolation with which he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me so that I rejoiced the more.

⁸ For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent; for I perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

⁹ Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry by God that ye might suffer no loss by us.

¹⁰ For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, of which there is no need to repented; but the sorrow of the world works death.

¹¹ For behold this same thing, that when ye were made sorry by God, what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things ye have shown yourselves to be clean in this matter.

¹² ¶ So that, though I wrote unto you, I did it not only for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.