Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
49 Don't forget your promise
to me, your servant.
I depend on it.
50 When I am hurting,
I find comfort in your promise
that leads to life.
51 Conceited people sneer at me,
but I obey your Law.
52 I find true comfort, Lord,
because your laws have stood
the test of time.
53 I get furious when evil people
turn against your Law.
54 No matter where I am,
your teachings
fill me with songs.
55 Even in the night
I think about you, Lord,
and I obey your Law.
56 You have blessed me
because I have always followed
your teachings.
36 Jeremiah, what you said is true. The people of Jerusalem are suffering from hunger and disease, and so the king of Babylonia will be able to capture Jerusalem.
37 I am angry with the people of Jerusalem, and I will scatter them in foreign countries. But someday I will bring them back here and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39-41 I will make their thoughts and desires pure. Then they will realize that, for their own good and the good of their children, they must worship only me. They will even be afraid to turn away from me. I will make an agreement with them that will never end, and I won't ever stop doing good things for them. With all my heart I promise that they will be planted in this land once again. 42 Even though I have brought disaster on the people, I will someday do all these good things for them.
43 Jeremiah, when you bought the field, you showed that fields will someday be bought and sold again. You say that this land has been conquered by the Babylonians and has become a desert, emptied of people and animals. 44 But someday, people will again spend their silver to buy fields everywhere—in the territory of Benjamin, the region around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and in the hill country, the foothills to the west, and the Southern Desert. Buyers and sellers and witnesses will sign and seal the bills of sale for the fields. It will happen, because I will give this land back to my people. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Warning to the Rich
5 You rich people should cry and weep! Terrible things are going to happen to you. 2 (A) Your treasures have already rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 (B) Your money has rusted, and the rust will be evidence against you, as it burns your body like fire. Yet you keep on storing up wealth in these last days. 4 (C) You refused to pay the people who worked in your fields, and now their unpaid wages are shouting out against you. The Lord All-Powerful has surely heard the cries of the workers who harvested your crops.
5 While here on earth, you have thought only of filling your own stomachs and having a good time. But now you are like fat cattle on their way to be butchered. 6 (D) You have condemned and murdered innocent people, who couldn't even fight back.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.