Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
137 [a]You are righteous, O Lord,
and your judgments are right.
138 You have set down your statutes as righteous
and as completely faithful.
139 Zeal has consumed me
because my adversaries ignore your words.
140 Your word has been tested through and through,[b]
and your servant cherishes it.
141 Although I am despised and unimportant,
I do not forget your commands.
142 Your righteousness is everlasting,
and your law is forever true.
143 I am afflicted by anguish and distress,
but your precepts are my delight.
144 Your statutes are forever righteous;
grant me understanding and I will live.
Qoph
14 [a]The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise of blessings I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:
15 In those days and at that time
I will cause a righteous branch
to spring up from the line of David
he will do what is just and upright in the land,
16 In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which the city will be called:
“The Lord Our Righteousness.”
17 For thus says the Lord: Never will David lack a male descendant to succeed to the throne of the house of Israel, 18 nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have available one of their number to stand before me to present burnt offerings, to burn cereal offerings, and to offer sacrifices each day.
19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 Thus says the Lord: If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night would no longer occur at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with my servant David could also be broken so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levites who minister as priests to me could also be broken. 22 Just as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be counted, so I will increase the descendants of my servant David and of the Levites who minister to me.
23 This word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24 Have you not noticed what these people say, “The two families that were chosen by the Lord have been rejected by him”? As a result, they look upon my people with such contempt that they no longer regard them as a nation.
25 Thus says the Lord: If I had not established my covenant with day and night and fixed the laws governing heaven and earth, 26 then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David and not choose any of David’s descendants to serve as rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have mercy upon them.
Address
Chapter 1
Greeting to the Church. 1 Paul, an apostle[a] of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God in Corinth, and to all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sufferings and Consolation.[b] 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all consolation.[c] 4 He consoles us in all our afflictions and thereby enables us to console others in their tribulations, offering them the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so too, through Christ, do we receive our consolation. 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation. If we are being consoled, it is to help us to console you and give you the patience and the strength to endure the same sufferings that we endure. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the consolations.
8 Brethren, we do not want you to be unaware of the hardships we experienced[d] in Asia. The burden we endured was far too heavy for us to bear, to such an extent that we even despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt that we were under a sentence of death. This was so that we not put our trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
10 He delivered us from this deadly peril, and he will continue to so deliver us. He on whom we have set our hopes will deliver us again, 11 as you assist us with your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many to God on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through the prayers of so many.
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