Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 How solitary and lonely sits the city [Jerusalem] that was [once] full of people! How like a widow has she become! She who was ^[a]great among the nations and princess among the provinces has become a tributary [in servitude]!

² She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are [constantly] on her cheeks. Among all her lovers (allies) she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.^(A)

³ Judah has gone into exile [to escape] from the affliction and laborious servitude [of the homeland]. She dwells among the [heathen] nations, but she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtook her amid the [dire] straits [of her distress].

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly or the appointed feasts. All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh and groan, her maidens are grieved and vexed, and she herself is in bitterness.

⁵ Her adversaries have become the head; her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children have gone into captivity before the enemy.^(B)

⁶ From the Daughter of Zion all her beauty and majesty have departed. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they have fled without strength before the pursuer.

¹⁹ [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰ My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.

²¹ But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:

²² It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.^(A)

²³ They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.^(B)

²⁴ The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.^(C)

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word].

²⁶ It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.

Psalm 137

¹ By the rivers of Babylon, there we [captives] sat down, yes, we wept when we [earnestly] remembered Zion [the city of our God imprinted on our hearts].

² On the willow trees in the midst of [Babylon] we hung our harps.

³ For there they who led us captive required of us a song with words, and our tormentors and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

⁴ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill [with the harp].

⁶ Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I remember you not, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy!^(A)

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, that they said in the day of Jerusalem’s fall, Down, down to the ground with her!

⁸ O Daughter of Babylon [you devastator, you!], who [ought to be and] shall be destroyed, happy and blessed shall he be who requites you as you have served us.^(B)

⁹ Happy and blessed shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!

1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

² To Timothy, [my] beloved child: Grace (favor and spiritual blessing), mercy, and [heart] peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord!

³ I thank God Whom I worship with a pure conscience, ^[a]in the spirit of my fathers, when without ceasing I remember you night and day in my prayers,

⁴ And when, as I recall your tears, I yearn to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

⁵ I am calling up memories of your sincere and unqualified faith (the ^[b]leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), [a faith] that first lived permanently in [the heart of] your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am [fully] persuaded, [dwells] in you also.

⁶ That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [^[c]with those of the elders at your ordination].

⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

⁸ Do not blush or be ashamed then, to testify to and for our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for His sake, but [^[d]with me] take your share of the suffering [to which the preaching] of the Gospel [may expose you, and do it] in the power of God.

⁹ [For it is He] Who delivered and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness [to a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness]; [He did it] not because of anything of merit that we have done, but because of and to further His own purpose and grace (unmerited favor) which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began [eternal ages ago].

¹⁰ [It is that purpose and grace] which He now has made known and has fully disclosed and made real [to us] through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who annulled death and made it of no effect and brought life and immortality (immunity from eternal death) to light through the Gospel.

¹¹ For [the proclaiming of] this [Gospel] I was appointed a herald (preacher) and an apostle (special messenger) and a teacher of the Gentiles.

¹² And this is why I am suffering as I do. Still I am not ashamed, for I know (perceive, have knowledge of, and am acquainted with) Him Whom I have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on), and I am [positively] persuaded that He is able to guard and keep that which has been entrusted to me and which ^[e]I have committed [to Him] until that day.

¹³ Hold fast and follow the pattern of wholesome and sound teaching which you have heard from me, in [all] the faith and love which are [for us] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith (that trust and confidence that spring from our belief in God).

⁶ And the Lord answered, If you had faith (trust and confidence in God) even [so small] like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

⁷ Will any man of you who has a servant plowing or tending sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and take your place at the table?

⁸ Will he not instead tell him, Get my supper ready and gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; then afterward you yourself shall eat and drink?

⁹ Is he grateful and does he praise the servant because he did what he was ordered to do?

¹⁰ Even so on your part, when you have done everything that was assigned and commanded you, say, We are unworthy servants [possessing no merit, for we have not gone beyond our obligation]; we have [merely] done what was our duty to do.