Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

79 O God, your land has been conquered by the heathen nations. Your Temple is defiled, and Jerusalem is a heap of ruins. ² The bodies of your people lie exposed—food for birds and animals. ³ The enemy has butchered the entire population of Jerusalem; blood has flowed like water. No one is left even to bury them. ⁴ The nations all around us scoff. They heap contempt on us.

⁵ O Jehovah, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? Will your jealousy burn till every hope is gone? ⁶ Pour out your wrath upon the godless nations—not on us—on kingdoms that refuse to pray, that will not call upon your name! ⁷ For they have destroyed your people Israel, invading every home. ⁸ Oh, do not hold us guilty for our former sins! Let your tenderhearted mercies meet our needs, for we are brought low to the dust. ⁹ Help us, God of our salvation! Help us for the honor of your name. Oh, save us and forgive our sins.

¹⁴ Then the people will say, “Why should we wait here to die? Come, let us go to the walled cities and perish there. For the Lord our God has decreed our doom and given us a cup of poison to drink because of all our sins. ¹⁵ We expected peace, but no peace came; we looked for health, but there was only terror.”

¹⁶ The noise of war resounds from the northern border.^[a] The whole land trembles at the approach of the terrible army, for the enemy is coming and is devouring the land and everything in it—the cities and people alike. ¹⁷ For I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes that you cannot charm. No matter what you do, they will bite you and you shall die.

² Oh, that I could go away and forget them and live in some wayside shack in the desert, for they are all adulterous, treacherous men.

³ “They bend their tongues like bows to shoot their arrows of untruth. They care nothing for right and go from bad to worse; they care nothing for me,” says the Lord.

⁴ Beware of your neighbor! Beware of your brother! All take advantage of one another and spread their slanderous lies. ⁵ With practiced tongues they fool and defraud each other; they wear themselves out with all their sinning.

⁶ “They pile evil upon evil, lie upon lie, and utterly refuse to come to me,” says the Lord.

⁷ Therefore, the Lord Almighty says this: “See, I will melt them in a crucible of affliction. I will refine them and test them like metal. What else can I do with them? ⁸ For their tongues aim lies like poisoned spears. They speak cleverly to their neighbors while planning to kill them. ⁹ Should not I punish them for such things as this?” asks the Lord. “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”

¹⁰ Sobbing and weeping, I point to their mountains and pastures, for now they are desolate, without a living soul. Gone is the lowing of cattle, gone the birds and wild animals. All have fled.

¹¹ “And I will turn Jerusalem into heaps of ruined houses where only jackals have their dens. The cities of Judah shall be ghost towns, with no one living in them.”

⁴¹ Then he went over to the collection boxes in the Temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Some who were rich put in large amounts. ⁴² Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies.

^43-44 He called his disciples to him and remarked, “That poor widow has given more than all those rich men put together! For they gave a little of their extra fat,^[a] while she gave up her last penny.”