Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Why Do You Hide Yourself?
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them (D)be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked (E)boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain (F)curses[a] and (G)renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face[b] the wicked does not (H)seek him;[c]
all his thoughts are, (I)“There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
your judgments are on high, (J)out of his sight;
as for all his foes, he (K)puffs at them.
6 He (L)says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I (M)shall not meet adversity.”
7 (N)His mouth is filled with cursing and (O)deceit and (P)oppression;
(Q)under his tongue are (R)mischief and (S)iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
in (T)hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9 he lurks in ambush like (U)a lion in his (V)thicket;
he (W)lurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his (X)net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
he has (Y)hidden his face, he (Z)will never see it.”
12 (AA)Arise, O Lord; O God, (AB)lift up your hand;
(AC)forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked (AD)renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not (AE)call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you (AF)note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless (AG)commits himself;
you have been (AH)the helper of the fatherless.
15 (AI)Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
(AJ)call his wickedness to account till you find none.
16 (AK)The Lord is king forever and ever;
the (AL)nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will (AM)strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to (AN)do justice to the fatherless and (AO)the oppressed,
so that (AP)man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Evil in the Land
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 (A)“Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: (B)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 (C)Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
5 “For if you truly (D)amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly (E)execute justice one with another, 6 if you (F)do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, (G)or shed innocent blood in this place, (H)and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 (I)then I will let you dwell in this place, (J)in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 (K)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, (L)swear falsely, (M)make offerings to Baal, (N)and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, (O)which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 (P)Has this house, (Q)which is called by my name, (R)become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to (S)my place that was in Shiloh, (T)where I made my name dwell at first, and (U)see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and (V)when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and (W)when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to (X)the house (Y)that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, (Z)as I did to Shiloh. 15 (AA)And I will cast you out of my sight, (AB)as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of (AC)Ephraim.
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
(A)“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for (B)forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 (C)As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from (D)the living God. 13 But (E)exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by (F)the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, (G)if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
(H)“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For (I)who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not (J)all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, (K)whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that (L)they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that (M)they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem (N)to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because (O)they were not united by faith with those who listened.[a] 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
(P)“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: (Q)“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
(R)“They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news (S)failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
(T)“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God[b] would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also (U)rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so (V)that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.