Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Prayer of an Elderly Person

Jerusalem Is Surrounded by Enemies

6 People of Benjamin, run for safety! Escape from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa and build a signal fire in Beth Haccherem. Disaster and destruction are about to come from the north. ² The city of Zion is beautiful, but it will be destroyed; ³ kings will camp there with their armies. They will pitch their tents around the city, and each of them will camp wherever they want. ⁴ They will say, “Prepare to attack Jerusalem! Get ready! We'll attack at noon!” But then they will say, “It's too late, the day is almost over, and the evening shadows are growing long. ⁵ We'll attack by night; we'll destroy the city's fortresses.”

⁶ The Lord Almighty has ordered these kings to cut down trees and build mounds in order to besiege Jerusalem. He has said, “I will punish this city because it is full of oppression. ⁷ As a well keeps its water fresh, so Jerusalem keeps its evil fresh. I hear violence and destruction in the city; sickness and wounds are all I see. ⁸ People of Jerusalem, let these troubles be a warning to you, or else I will abandon you; I will turn your city into a desert, a place where no one lives.”

Rebellious Israel

⁹ The Lord Almighty said to me, “Israel will be stripped clean like a vineyard from which every grape has been picked. So you must rescue everyone you can while there is still time.”

¹⁰ I answered, “Who would listen to me if I spoke to them and warned them? They are stubborn and refuse to listen to your message; they laugh at what you tell me to say. ¹¹ Your anger against them burns in me too, Lord, and I can't hold it in any longer.”

Then the Lord said to me, “Pour out my anger on the children in the streets and on the gatherings of the young people. Husbands and wives will be taken away, and even the very old will not be spared. ¹² Their houses will be given to others, and so will their fields and their wives. I am going to punish the people of this land. ¹³ Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly; even prophets and priests cheat the people. ^14 (A)They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well. ^15 (B)Were they ashamed because they did these disgusting things? No, they were not at all ashamed; they don't even know how to blush. And so they will fall as others have fallen; when I punish them, that will be the end of them. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Israel Rejects God's Way

¹⁶ The Lord said to his people, “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and where the best road is. Walk in it, and you will live in peace.”

But they said, “No, we will not!” ¹⁷ Then the Lord appointed sentries to listen for the trumpet's warning. But they said, “We will not listen.”

¹⁸ So the Lord said, “Listen, you nations, and learn what is going to happen to my people. ¹⁹ Listen, earth! As punishment for all their schemes I am bringing ruin on these people, because they have rejected my teaching and have not obeyed my words.

³ Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. ⁴ For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. ^5 (A)Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children?

⁷ Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? ⁸ If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. ⁹ In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! ¹⁰ Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness. ¹¹ When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.

Instructions and Warnings

^12 (B)Lift up your tired hands, then, and strengthen your trembling knees! ^13 (C)Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.

¹⁴ Try to be at peace with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it. ^15 (D)Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison. ^16 (E)Let no one become immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who for a single meal sold his rights as the older son. ^17 (F)Afterward, you know, he wanted to receive his father's blessing; but he was turned back, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, even though in tears he looked for it.^[a]