Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
Curse of the Covenant
11 The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying: 2 Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3 Now say to them, Thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Cursed is the one who does not obey the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your forefathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt—out of the iron furnace—saying: ‘Listen to My voice, and do all that I command you. Then you will be My people, and I will be your God. [a] 5 Then I will fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.’”
In response I said, “Amen, Adonai.”
6 Then Adonai said to me: “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.’ 7 For I earnestly forewarned your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt until this day, forewarning early and often, saying ‘Listen to My voice!’ 8 Yet they would not obey or incline their ear, but each one walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant—which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”
9 Then Adonai said to me, “A conspiracy has been discovered among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words. They have gone after other gods to serve them.
“The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”
11 Therefore thus says Adonai. “I will soon bring a disaster on them that they will not be able to escape. They will cry out to Me, yet I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense—but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah, and as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing—altars to burn incense to Baal. 14 As for you, you are not to pray for this people or lift up supplication or prayer for them, for I will not hear them at the time they cry to out to Me because of their disaster.”[b]
Olive Tree with Broken Branches
15 “What is My beloved doing in My House
as she does evil schemes with many?
Can holy meat prevent your disaster?
So you may rejoice?
16 Adonai called your name—a leafy olive tree,[c]
beautiful with well-formed fruit.
With the noise of a great tumult
He has set it on fire,
and its branches are broken.
17 For Adonai-Tzva’ot, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves, provoking Me by offering sacrifices to Baal.
God’s Judgment on Unrighteousness
2 Therefore you are without excuse, O man—every one of you who is judging. For by whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. [a] 2 We know that God’s judgment on those who practice such things is based on truth. 3 But you, O man—judging those practicing such things yet doing the same—do you suppose that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you belittle the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience—not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
5 But by your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. [b] 6 He will pay back each person according to his deeds. [c] 7 To those who by perseverance in doing good are seeking glory, honor, and immortality—eternal life. 8 But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—wrath and fury. 9 There will be trouble and hardship for every human soul that does evil—to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 10 But there will be glory, honor, and shalom to everyone who does good—to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.[d]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.