Today’s Readings: Fri 31 May 2024

Lamentations 1–3:33

1:1How lonely sits the citythat was full of people!How like a widow has she become,she who was great among the nations!She who was a princess among the provinceshas become a slave. 2She weeps bitterly in the night,with tears on her cheeks;among all her loversshe has none to comfort her;all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;they have become her enemies. 3Judah has gone into exile because of afflictionand hard servitude;she dwells now among the nations,but finds no resting place;her pursuers have all overtaken herin the midst of her distress. 4The roads to Zion mourn,for none come to the festival;all her gates are desolate;her priests groan;her virgins have been afflicted,and she herself suffers bitterly. 5Her foes have become the head;her enemies prosper,because the LORD has afflicted herfor the multitude of her transgressions;her children have gone away,captives before the foe. 6From the daughter of Zionall her majesty has departed.Her princes have become like deerthat find no pasture;they fled without strengthbefore the pursuer. 7Jerusalem remembersin the days of her affliction and wanderingall the precious thingsthat were hers from days of old.When her people fell into the hand of the foe,and there was none to help her,her foes gloated over her;they mocked at her downfall. 8Jerusalem sinned grievously;therefore she became filthy;all who honored her despise her,for they have seen her nakedness;she herself groansand turns her face away. 9Her uncleanness was in her skirts;she took no thought of her future;therefore her fall is terrible;she has no comforter.“O LORD, behold my affliction,for the enemy has triumphed!” 10The enemy has stretched out his handsover all her precious things;for she has seen the nationsenter her sanctuary,those whom you forbadeto enter your congregation. 11All her people groanas they search for bread;they trade their treasures for foodto revive their strength.“Look, O LORD, and see,for I am despised.” 12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?Look and seeif there is any sorrow like my sorrow,which was brought upon me,which the LORD inflictedon the day of his fierce anger. 13“From on high he sent fire;into my bones he made it descend;he spread a net for my feet;he turned me back;he has left me stunned,faint all the day long. 14“My transgressions were bound into a yoke;by his hand they were fastened together;they were set upon my neck;he caused my strength to fail;the Lord gave me into the handsof those whom I cannot withstand. 15“The Lord rejectedall my mighty men in my midst;he summoned an assembly against meto crush my young men;the Lord has trodden as in a winepressthe virgin daughter of Judah. 16“For these things I weep;my eyes flow with tears;for a comforter is far from me,one to revive my spirit;my children are desolate,for the enemy has prevailed.” 17Zion stretches out her hands,but there is none to comfort her;the LORD has commanded against Jacobthat his neighbors should be his foes;Jerusalem has becomea filthy thing among them. 18“The LORD is in the right,for I have rebelled against his word;but hear, all you peoples,and see my suffering;my young women and my young menhave gone into captivity. 19“I called to my lovers,but they deceived me;my priests and eldersperished in the city,while they sought foodto revive their strength. 20“Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;my stomach churns;my heart is wrung within me,because I have been very rebellious.In the street the sword bereaves;in the house it is like death. 21“They heard my groaning,yet there is no one to comfort me.All my enemies have heard of my trouble;they are glad that you have done it.You have brought the day you announced;now let them be as I am. 22“Let all their evildoing come before you,and deal with themas you have dealt with mebecause of all my transgressions;for my groans are many,and my heart is faint.”

2:1How the Lord in his angerhas set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!He has cast down from heaven to earththe splendor of Israel;he has not remembered his footstoolin the day of his anger. 2The Lord has swallowed up without mercyall the habitations of Jacob;in his wrath he has broken downthe strongholds of the daughter of Judah;he has brought down to the ground in dishonorthe kingdom and its rulers. 3He has cut down in fierce angerall the might of Israel;he has withdrawn from them his right handin the face of the enemy;he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,consuming all around. 4He has bent his bow like an enemy,with his right hand set like a foe;and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;in the tent of the daughter of Zion,he has poured out his fury like fire. 5The Lord has become like an enemy;he has swallowed up Israel;he has swallowed up all its palaces;he has laid in ruins its strongholds,and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judahmourning and lamentation. 6He has laid waste his booth like a garden,laid in ruins his meeting place;the LORD has made Zion forgetfestival and Sabbath,and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. 7The Lord has scorned his altar,disowned his sanctuary;he has delivered into the hand of the enemythe walls of her palaces;they raised a clamor in the house of the LORDas on the day of festival. 8The LORD determined to lay in ruinsthe wall of the daughter of Zion;he stretched out the measuring line;he did not restrain his hand from destroying;he caused rampart and wall to lament;they languished together. 9Her gates have sunk into the ground;he has ruined and broken her bars;her king and princes are among the nations;the law is no more,and her prophets findno vision from the LORD. 10The elders of the daughter of Zionsit on the ground in silence;they have thrown dust on their headsand put on sackcloth;the young women of Jerusalemhave bowed their heads to the ground. 11My eyes are spent with weeping;my stomach churns;my bile is poured out to the groundbecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people,because infants and babies faintin the streets of the city. 12They cry to their mothers,“Where is bread and wine?”as they faint like a wounded manin the streets of the city,as their life is poured outon their mothers’ bosom. 13What can I say for you, to what compare you,O daughter of Jerusalem?What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,O virgin daughter of Zion?For your ruin is vast as the sea;who can heal you? 14Your prophets have seen for youfalse and deceptive visions;they have not exposed your iniquityto restore your fortunes,but have seen for you oraclesthat are false and misleading. 15All who pass along the wayclap their hands at you;they hiss and wag their headsat the daughter of Jerusalem:“Is this the city that was calledthe perfection of beauty,the joy of all the earth?” 16All your enemiesrail against you;they hiss, they gnash their teeth,they cry: “We have swallowed her!Ah, this is the day we longed for;now we have it; we see it!” 17The LORD has done what he purposed;he has carried out his word,which he commanded long ago;he has thrown down without pity;he has made the enemy rejoice over youand exalted the might of your foes. 18Their heart cried to the Lord.O wall of the daughter of Zion,let tears stream down like a torrentday and night!Give yourself no rest,your eyes no respite! 19“Arise, cry out in the night,at the beginning of the night watches!Pour out your heart like waterbefore the presence of the Lord!Lift your hands to himfor the lives of your children,who faint for hungerat the head of every street.” 20Look, O LORD, and see!With whom have you dealt thus?Should women eat the fruit of their womb,the children of their tender care?Should priest and prophet be killedin the sanctuary of the Lord? 21In the dust of the streetslie the young and the old;my young women and my young menhave fallen by the sword;you have killed them in the day of your anger,slaughtering without pity. 22You summoned as if to a festival daymy terrors on every side,and on the day of the anger of the LORDno one escaped or survived;those whom I held and raisedmy enemy destroyed.

3:1I am the man who has seen afflictionunder the rod of his wrath;2he has driven and brought meinto darkness without any light;3surely against me he turns his handagain and again the whole day long. 4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;he has broken my bones;5he has besieged and enveloped mewith bitterness and tribulation;6he has made me dwell in darknesslike the dead of long ago. 7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;he has made my chains heavy;8though I call and cry for help,he shuts out my prayer;9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;he has made my paths crooked. 10He is a bear lying in wait for me,a lion in hiding;11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;he has made me desolate;12he bent his bow and set meas a target for his arrow. 13He drove into my kidneysthe arrows of his quiver;14I have become the laughingstock of all my people,the object of their taunts all day long.15He has filled me with bitterness;he has sated me with wormwood. 16He has made my teeth grind on gravel,and made me cower in ashes;17my soul is bereft of peace;I have forgotten what happiness is;18so I say, “My endurance has perished;so has my hope from the LORD.” 19Remember my affliction and my wanderings,the wormwood and the gall!20My soul continually remembers itand is bowed down within me.21But this I call to mind,and therefore I have hope: 22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;23they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,“therefore I will hope in him.” 25The LORD is good to those who wait for him,to the soul who seeks him.26It is good that one should wait quietlyfor the salvation of the LORD.27It is good for a man that he bearthe yoke in his youth. 28Let him sit alone in silencewhen it is laid on him;29let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope;30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,and let him be filled with insults. 31For the Lord will notcast off forever,32for, though he cause grief, he will have compassionaccording to the abundance of his steadfast love;33for he does not afflict from his heartor grieve the children of men.

Mark 12:28–44

28And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

35And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at my right hand,until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

37David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.

38And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

41And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Psalm 108

A Song. A Psalm of David.

108:1My heart is steadfast, O God!I will sing and make melody with all my being!2Awake, O harp and lyre!I will awake the dawn!3I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;I will sing praises to you among the nations.4For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!Let your glory be over all the earth!6That your beloved ones may be delivered,give salvation by your right hand and answer me! 7God has promised in his holiness:“With exultation I will divide up Shechemand portion out the Valley of Succoth.8Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;Ephraim is my helmet,Judah my scepter.9Moab is my washbasin;upon Edom I cast my shoe;over Philistia I shout in triumph.” 10Who will bring me to the fortified city?Who will lead me to Edom?11Have you not rejected us, O God?You do not go out, O God, with our armies.12Oh grant us help against the foe,for vain is the salvation of man!13With God we shall do valiantly;it is he who will tread down our foes.

Proverbs 13:24–25

24Whoever spares the rod hates his son,but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.25The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite,but the belly of the wicked suffers want.