Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

10 Lord, why are you standing aloof and far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most?

² Come and deal with all these proud and wicked men who viciously persecute the poor. Pour upon these men the evil they planned for others! ³ For these men brag of all their evil lusts; they revile God and congratulate those the Lord abhors, whose only goal in life is money.

⁴ These wicked men, so proud and haughty, seem to think that God is dead.^[a] They wouldn’t think of looking for him! ⁵ Yet there is success in everything they do, and their enemies fall before them. They do not see your punishment awaiting them. ⁶ They boast that neither God nor man can ever keep them down—somehow they’ll find a way!

⁷ Their mouths are full of profanity and lies and fraud. They are always boasting of their evil plans. ⁸ They lurk in dark alleys of the city and murder passersby. ⁹ Like lions they crouch silently, waiting to pounce upon the poor. Like hunters they catch their victims in their traps. ¹⁰ The unfortunate are overwhelmed by their superior strength and fall beneath their blows. ¹¹ “God isn’t watching,” they say to themselves; “he’ll never know!”

¹² O Lord, arise! O God, crush them! Don’t forget the poor or anyone else in need. ¹³ Why do you let the wicked get away with this contempt for God? For they think that God will never call them to account. ¹⁴ Lord, you see what they are doing. You have noted each evil act. You know what trouble and grief they have caused. Now punish them. O Lord, the poor man trusts himself to you; you are known as the helper of the helpless. ¹⁵ Break the arms of these wicked men. Go after them until the last of them is destroyed.

¹⁶ The Lord is King forever and forever. Those who follow other gods shall be swept from his land.

¹⁷ Lord, you know the hopes of humble people. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort their hearts by helping them. ¹⁸ You will be with the orphans and all who are oppressed, so that mere earthly man will terrify them no longer.

¹⁶ Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Neither weep for them nor pray nor beg that I should help them, for I will not listen. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ No wonder my anger is great! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build fires, and the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven^[a] and to their other idol-gods! ¹⁹ Am I the one that they are hurting? asks the Lord. Most of all they hurt themselves, to their own shame. ²⁰ So the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger, yes, my fury on this place—people, animals, trees, and plants will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.

²¹ The Lord, the God of Israel says: Away with your offerings and sacrifices! ²² It wasn’t offerings and sacrifices I wanted from your fathers when I led them out of Egypt. That was not the point of my command. ²³ But what I told them was: Obey me, and I will be your God and you shall be my people; only do as I say, and all shall be well!

²⁴ But they wouldn’t listen; they kept on doing whatever they wanted to, following their own stubborn, evil thoughts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵ Ever since the day your fathers left Egypt until now, I have kept on sending them my prophets, day after day. ²⁶ But they wouldn’t listen to them or even try to hear. They are hard and stubborn and rebellious—worse even than their fathers were.

⁷ “Write this letter to the leader of the church in Philadelphia.

“This message is sent to you by the one who is holy and true and has the key of David to open what no one can shut and to shut what no one can open.

⁸ “I know you well; you aren’t strong, but you have tried to obey^[a] and have not denied my Name. Therefore I have opened a door to you that no one can shut.

⁹ “Note this: I will force those supporting the causes of Satan while claiming to be mine^[b] (but they aren’t—they are lying) to fall at your feet and acknowledge that you are the ones I love.

¹⁰ “Because you have patiently obeyed me despite the persecution, therefore I will protect you from the time of Great Tribulation and temptation,^[c] which will come upon the world to test everyone alive. ¹¹ Look, I am coming soon!^[d] Hold tightly to the little strength you have—so that no one will take away your crown.

¹² “As for the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; he will be secure and will go out no more; and I will write my God’s Name on him, and he will be a citizen in the city of my God—the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from my God; and he will have my new Name inscribed upon him.

¹³ “Let all who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.