Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 How doth the city sit solitary [that] was full of people! She that was great among the nations is become as a widow; the princess among the provinces is become tributary!

² She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath no comforter; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

³ Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest: all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits.

⁴ The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly: all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are in grief; and as for her, she is in bitterness.

⁵ Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper; for Jehovah hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the adversary.

⁶ And from the daughter of Zion all her splendour is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture; and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

¹⁹ Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰ My soul hath [them] constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

²¹ —This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.

²² It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;

²³ they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

²⁴ Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

²⁵ Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.

²⁶ It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.

137 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.

² We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that made us wail [required] mirth, [saying,] Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.

⁴ How should we sing a song of Jehovah's upon a foreign soil?

⁵ If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [its skill];

⁶ If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to my palate: if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

⁷ Remember, O Jehovah, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Lay [it] bare, Lay [it] bare, down to its foundation!

⁸ Daughter of Babylon, who art to be laid waste, happy he that rendereth unto thee that which thou hast meted out to us.

⁹ Happy he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.

1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, according to promise of life, the [life] which [is] in Christ Jesus,

² to Timotheus, [my] beloved child: grace, mercy, peace, from God [the] Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ I am thankful to God, whom I serve from [my] forefathers with pure conscience, how unceasingly I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day,

⁴ earnestly desiring to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

⁵ calling to mind the unfeigned faith which [has been] in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.

⁶ For which cause I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion.

⁸ Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God;

⁹ who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to [his] own purpose and grace, which [was] given to us in Christ Jesus before [the] ages of time,

¹⁰ but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings;

¹¹ to which *I* have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of [the] nations.

¹² For which cause also I suffer these things; but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him.

¹³ Have an outline of sound words, which [words] thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which [are] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted.

⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, Give more faith to us.

⁶ But the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed], ye had said to this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea, and it would have obeyed you.

⁷ But which of you [is there] who, having a bondman ploughing or shepherding, when he comes in out of the field, will say, Come and lie down immediately to table?

⁸ But will he not say to him, Prepare what I shall sup on, and gird thyself and serve me that I may eat and drink; and after that *thou* shalt eat and drink?

⁹ Is he thankful to the bondman because he has done what was ordered? I judge not.

¹⁰ Thus *ye* also, when ye shall have done all things that have been ordered you, say, We are unprofitable bondmen; we have done what it was our duty to do.