Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
ז Zayin
49 Remember Your word to Your servant,
on which You have caused me to hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction,
for Your word revives me.
51 The proud ones have derided me,
yet I have not forsaken Your law.
52 I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord,
and I have comforted myself.
53 Fury has taken hold of me because of the wicked
who forsake Your law.
54 Your statutes have been my songs
in the house of my temporary dwelling.
55 I have remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night,
and have kept Your law.
56 This is my blessing,
because I have kept Your precepts.
Jeremiah Prays for Understanding
16 Now when I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
17 Ah Lord God! Truly, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for You. 18 You show lovingkindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The Lord of Hosts is His name, 19 great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20 You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and have made Yourself a name, as it is today. 21 And You have brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great terror. 22 And You have given them this land, which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they entered and possessed it. But they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.
24 See, the siege ramps have come to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence, and what You have spoken has come to pass, as You can see. 25 O Lord God, You have said to me, “Buy the field for money and call in witnesses,” although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
God Promises the People’s Return
26 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 27 Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for Me? 28 Therefore thus says the Lord: I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it. 29 And the Chaldeans who fight against this city will come and set this city on fire and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.
30 Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth. For the sons of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord. 31 Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that I should remove it from before My face, 32 because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and of the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger, they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their back to Me and not their face. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened nor received instruction. 34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molek, which I had not commanded them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
The Message to Laodicea
14 “To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write:
“The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says these things: 15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 For you say, ‘I am rich, and have stored up goods, and have need of nothing,’ yet do not realize that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be dressed, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear, and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19 “Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
21 “To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.