Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Why have nations tumultuously assembled? And do peoples meditate vanity?
2 Station themselves do kings of the earth, And princes have been united together, Against Jehovah, and against His Messiah:
3 `Let us draw off Their cords, And cast from us Their thick bands.'
4 He who is sitting in the heavens doth laugh, The Lord doth mock at them.
5 Then doth He speak unto them in His anger, And in His wrath He doth trouble them:
6 `And I -- I have anointed My King, Upon Zion -- My holy hill.'
7 I declare concerning a statute: Jehovah said unto me, `My Son Thou [art], I to-day have brought thee forth.
8 Ask of Me and I give nations -- thy inheritance, And thy possession -- the ends of earth.
9 Thou dost rule them with a sceptre of iron, As a vessel of a potter Thou dost crush them.'
10 And now, O kings, act wisely, Be instructed, O judges of earth,
11 Serve ye Jehovah with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Chosen One, lest He be angry, And ye lose the way, When His anger burneth but a little, O the happiness of all trusting in Him!
12 And they have said, It is incurable, For after our own devices we do go, And each the stubbornness of his evil heart we do.
13 Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Ask, I pray you, among the nations, Who hath heard like these? A very horrible thing hath the virgin of Israel done.
14 Doth snow of Lebanon Cease from the rock of the field? Failed are the cold strange waters that flow?
15 But My people have forgotten Me, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways -- paths of old, To walk in paths -- a way not raised up,
16 To make their land become a desolation, A hissing age-during, Every passer by it is astonished, And bemoaneth with his head.
17 As an east wind I scatter them before an enemy, The neck, and not the face, I shew them, In the day of their calamity.'
18 And they say, Come, And we devise against Jeremiah devices, For law doth not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, Nor the word from the prophet, Come, and we smite him with the tongue, And we do not attend to any of his words.
19 Give attention, O Jehovah, unto me, And hearken to the voice of those contending with me.
20 Is evil recompensed instead of good, That they have dug a pit for my soul? Remember my standing before Thee to speak good of them, To turn back Thy wrath from them.
21 Therefore, give up their sons to famine, And cause them to run on the sides of the sword, And their wives are bereaved and widows, And their men are slain by death, Their young men smitten by sword in battle,
22 A cry is heard from their houses, For Thou bringest against them suddenly a troop, For they dug a pit to capture me, And snares they have hidden for my feet.
23 And Thou, O Jehovah, Thou hast known, All their counsel against me [is] for death, Thou dost not cover over their iniquity, Nor their sin from before Thee blottest out, And they are made to stumble before Thee, In the time of Thine anger work against them!
14 These things I write to thee, hoping to come unto thee soon,
15 and if I delay, that thou mayest know how it behoveth [thee] to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is an assembly of the living God -- a pillar and foundation of the truth,
16 and, confessedly, great is the secret of piety -- God was manifested in flesh, declared righteous in spirit, seen by messengers, preached among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory!
4 And the Spirit expressly speaketh, that in latter times shall certain fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons,
2 in hypocrisy speaking lies, being seared in their own conscience,
3 forbidding to marry -- to abstain from meats that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those believing and acknowledging the truth,
4 because every creature of God [is] good, and nothing [is] to be rejected, with thanksgiving being received,
5 for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession.