Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

ZAIN.

⁴⁹ ¶ Remember the word unto thy slave, in which thou hast caused me to wait.

⁵⁰ ¶ This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy spoken word has caused me to live.

⁵¹ ¶ The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet I have not deviated from thy law.

⁵² ¶ I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD, and have consoled myself.

⁵³ ¶ Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.

⁵⁴ ¶ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

⁵⁵ ¶ I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.

⁵⁶ This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

¹⁶ ¶ Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying,

¹⁷ Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing hidden from thee;

¹⁸ that thou dost show mercy in thousands and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their sons after them, the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of the hosts, is his name,

¹⁹ great in counsel and magnificent in works: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give unto each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings;

²⁰ who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and in the man, and hast made thee a name, as at this day;

²¹ and hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm and with great terror;

²² and hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

²³ and they came in and possessed it; but they did not hear thy voice, neither did they walk in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou didst command them to do, therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them.

²⁴ Behold the siege engines are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it because of the sword and of the famine and of the pestilence, and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou dost see it.

²⁵ And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy the field for money and take witnesses; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ ¶ Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,

²⁷ Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: peradventure shall any thing be covered unto me?

²⁸ Therefore thus hath the LORD said; Behold, I give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

²⁹ and the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.

³⁰ For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have done only evil before me from their youth: for the sons of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, said the LORD.

³¹ For this city has been unto me as a provocation of my anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face

³² because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and of the sons of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³ And they have turned unto me the back and not the face: when I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they did not hearken to receive chastisement;

³⁴ but they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

³⁵ And they built altars unto Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I did not command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

¹⁴ ¶ And unto the angel of the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of the Laodiceans write; Behold, he who saith, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:

¹⁵ I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot.

¹⁶ So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

¹⁷ Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

¹⁸ I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined in the fire, that thou may be made rich; and clothed in white raiment, so that the shame of thy nakedness not be uncovered; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou may see.

¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and call; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me.

²¹ To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with my Father in his throne.

²² He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}