Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
117 Praise Adonai, all you nations!
Worship him, all you peoples!
2 For his grace has overcome us,
and Adonai’s truth continues forever.
Halleluyah!
30 This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2 “This is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘Write all the words I have spoken to you in a scroll. 3 For the day is coming,’ says Adonai, ‘when I will reverse the exile of my people Isra’el and Y’hudah,’ says Adonai. ‘I will cause them to return to the land I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it.’”
4 These are the words Adonai spoke concerning Isra’el and Y’hudah: 5 Here is what Adonai says:
“We have heard a cry of terror,
of fear and not of peace.
6 Ask now and see:
can men give birth to children?
Why, then, do I see all the men
with their hands on their stomachs like women in labor,
with every face turned pale?
7 How dreadful that day will be! —
there has never been one like it:
a time of trouble for Ya‘akov,
but out of it he will be saved.
8 “On that day,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“I will break his yoke from off your neck,
I will snap your chains.
Foreigners will no longer enslave him.
9 Instead, they will serve Adonai their God
and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 “So don’t be afraid, Ya‘akov my servant,”
says Adonai, “or be alarmed, Isra’el;
for I will return you from far away
and your offspring from their country of exile.
Ya‘akov will again be quiet, at rest;
and no one will make him afraid.
11 “For I am with you to save you,” says Adonai,
“I will finish off all the nations
where I have scattered you.
However, you I will not finish off,
but will discipline only as you deserve;
I will not completely destroy you.”
12 For here is what Adonai says:
“Your wound is past healing,
your injury most severe;
13 no one thinks your wound can be bandaged;
you have no medicines that can heal you.
14 All your friends have forgotten you,
they no longer seek you out.
I have struck you down as an enemy would,
punished as a cruel man would,
because of your great wickedness,
because of your many sins.
15 Why cry that your wound and pain are past healing?
I have done these things to you
because of your great wickedness,
because of your many sins.
16 “But all who devour you will be devoured,
all your enemies will go into exile,
those who plunder you will be plundered,
those who pillage you will be pillaged.
17 For I will restore your health,
I will heal you of your wounds,” says Adonai,
“because they called you an outcast,
Tziyon, with no one who cares about her.”
5 Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Also he said, “Write, ‘These words are true and trustworthy!’” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty I myself will give water free of charge from the Fountain of Life. 7 He who wins the victory will receive these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the untrustworthy, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those involved with the occult and with drugs, idol-worshippers, and all liars — their destiny is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, the second death.”
9 One of the seven angels having the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues approached me and said, “Come! I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.” 10 He carried me off in the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It had the Sh’khinah of God, so that its brilliance was like that of a priceless jewel, like a crystal-clear diamond. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates; at the gates were twelve angels; and inscribed on the gates were the names of the twelve tribes of Isra’el. 13 There were three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south and three gates to the west. 14 The wall of the city was built on twelve foundation-stones, and on these were the twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb.
15 The angel speaking with me had a gold measuring-rod with which to measure the city, its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out in a square, its length equal to its width. With his rod he measured the city at 1,500 miles, with length, width and height the same. 17 He measured its wall at 216 feet by human standards of measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass. 19 The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb. 23 The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Sh’khinah gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 Its gates will never close, they stay open all day because night will not exist there, 26 and the honor and splendor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure may enter it, nor anyone who does shameful things or lies; the only ones who may enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.