Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁹ Remember my trouble and my traveling from place to place, the wormwood and bitter feelings. ²⁰ I remember it always, and my soul bows down within me. ²¹ But this I remember, and so I have hope. ²² It is because of the Lord’s loving-kindness that we are not destroyed for His loving-pity never ends. ²³ It is new every morning. He is so very faithful. ²⁴ “The Lord is my share.” says my soul, “so I have hope in Him.” ²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the one who looks for Him. ²⁶ It is good that one should be quiet and wait for the saving power of the Lord.

Jerusalem Destroyed

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² Zedekiah did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord, like all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ The Lord became so angry with Jerusalem and Judah that He had them sent away from Him. And Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon.

⁴ On the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of his rule, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army to fight against Jerusalem. His soldiers gathered outside the city and built a battle-wall all around it. ⁵ So the city was shut in by the army of the Babylonians until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ On the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger became very bad in the city. There was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war ran away. They left the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, while the Babylonians were all around the city. They went by way of the Arabah. ⁸ But the Babylonian army went after King Zedekiah and came to him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was divided and ran away from him. ⁹ They took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he decided what Zedekiah’s punishment would be. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in front of his eyes. He killed all the leaders of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, put him in chains of brass, and took him to Babylon. There he was put in prison until the day of his death.

Words to the Church in Smyrna

⁸ “Write this to the angel of the church in the city of Smyrna: ‘The One Who is First and Last, the One Who died and came to life again, says this: ⁹ I know of your troubles. I know you are poor. But still you are rich! I know the bad things spoken against you by those who say they are Jews. But they are not Jews. They belong to the devil. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you will suffer. Listen! The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will be in trouble for ten days. Be faithful even to death. Then I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹ You have ears! Then listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The person who has power and wins will not be hurt by the second death!’