Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶⁸ Blessed be [the] Lord the God of Israel, because he has visited and wrought redemption for his people,

⁶⁹ and raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the house of David his servant;

⁷⁰ as he spoke by [the] mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began;

⁷¹ deliverance from our enemies and out of the hand of all who hate us;

⁷² to fulfil mercy with our fathers and remember his holy covenant,

⁷³ [the] oath which he swore to Abraham our father,

⁷⁴ to give us, that, saved out of the hand of our enemies, we should serve him without fear

⁷⁵ in piety and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶ And *thou*, child, shalt be called [the] prophet of [the] Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of [the] Lord to make ready his ways;

⁷⁷ to give knowledge of deliverance to his people by [the] remission of their sins

⁷⁸ on account of [the] bowels of mercy of our God; wherein [the] dayspring from on high has visited us,

⁷⁹ to shine upon them who were sitting in darkness and in [the] shadow of death, to guide our feet into [the] way of peace.

21 The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

² Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that Jehovah will deal with us according to all his marvellous works, that he may go up from us.

³ And Jeremiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

⁵ And I myself will fight against you with a stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm, and in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

⁶ And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷ And afterwards, saith Jehovah, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life, and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword: he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸ And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

⁹ He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and deserteth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

¹⁰ For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

¹¹ And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of Jehovah.

¹² House of David, thus saith Jehovah: Judge with justice in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³ Behold, I am against thee, inhabitress of the valley, the rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; ye that say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our dwellings?

¹⁴ And I will visit you according to the fruit of your doings, saith Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.

²³ [It was] necessary then that the figurative representations of the things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with sacrifices better than these.

²⁴ For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hand, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us:

²⁵ nor in order that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy places every year with blood not his own;

²⁶ since he had [then] been obliged often to suffer from the foundation of the world. But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for [the] putting away of sin by his sacrifice.

²⁷ And forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment;

²⁸ thus the Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear to those that look for him the second time without sin for salvation.