Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
1 ¶ Why dost thou stand afar off, O LORD? Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire and blesses the covetous, whom the LORD abhors.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, does not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he puffs at them.
6 He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places he murders the innocent: his eyes are secretly set against the poor.
9 He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lies in wait to catch the poor: he catches the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 He crouches and hides himself, and many are those who fall under his power.
11 He has said in his heart, God has forgotten; he hides his face; he will never see it.
12 ¶ Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand; forget not the humble.
13 In what does the wicked irritate God? He has said in his heart, Thou wilt not require accountability.
14 Thou hast seen it, for thou dost behold mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand: the poor commits himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until thou find none.
16 The LORD is King for ever and ever; the Gentiles are perished out of his land.
17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no longer oppress.
7 ¶ The word that was sent to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus hath the LORD of the hosts the God of Israel said, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Do not trust in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD are these.
5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly do right between a man and his neighbour,
6 if ye do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt,
7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not,
10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are free to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, said the LORD.
12 But go now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now because ye have done all these works, said the LORD and I spoke well unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye did not hear; and I called you, but ye did not answer;
14 therefore I will do unto this house, which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and unto this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
7 ¶ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye will hear his voice,
8 harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 Where your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Therefore, I was indignant with that generation and said, They do always err from their heart, and they have not known my ways.
11 So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unfaithfulness, to depart from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;
15 while it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some of those that came out of Egypt with Moses, when they had heard, did provoke; howbeit not all.
17 But with whom was he indignant forty years? Was it not with those that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom he swore that they should not enter into his rest, but to those that disobeyed?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of their unbelief.
4 ¶ Let us, therefore, fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them, but it did not profit those that heard the word without mixing it with faith.
3 (For we who have believed do enter into the rest) as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day like this, And God rested the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, They shall not enter into my rest.
6 Seeing, therefore, it remains that some must enter therein, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of disobedience;
7 Again, he determines a certain day, saying, Today, by David so long a time afterward; as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest {Gr. Sabbatismos} for the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 ¶ Let us therefore make haste to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
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