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Psalm 39

1  I said, ‘I will keep watch over my ways, ♦︎
   so that I offend not with my tongue.
2  ‘I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, ♦︎
   while the wicked are in my sight.’
3  So I held my tongue and said nothing; ♦︎
   I kept silent but to no avail.
4  My distress increased, my heart grew hot within me; ♦︎
   while I mused, the fire was kindled
      and I spoke out with my tongue:
5  ‘Lord, let me know my end and the number of my days, ♦︎
   that I may know how short my time is.
6  ‘You have made my days but a handsbreadth,
      and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight; ♦︎
   truly, even those who stand upright are but a breath.
7  ‘We walk about like a shadow
      and in vain we are in turmoil; ♦︎
   we heap up riches and cannot tell who will gather them.
8  ‘And now, what is my hope? ♦︎
   Truly my hope is even in you.
9  ‘Deliver me from all my transgressions ♦︎
   and do not make me the taunt of the fool.’
10  I fell silent and did not open my mouth, ♦︎
   for surely it was your doing.
11  Take away your plague from me; ♦︎
   I am consumed by the blows of your hand.
12  With rebukes for sin you punish us;
      like a moth you consume our beauty; ♦︎
   truly, everyone is but a breath.
13  Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; ♦︎
   hold not your peace at my tears.
14  For I am but a stranger with you, ♦︎
   a wayfarer, as all my forebears were.
15  Turn your gaze from me, that I may be glad again, ♦︎
   before I go my way and am no more.

Jeremiah Proclaims God’s Judgement on the Nation

7The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. ³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you^* in this place. ⁴Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is^* the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, ⁶if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.

8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. ⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord. ¹²Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, ¹⁴therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.

The People’s Disobedience

16 As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! ¹⁵For he says to Moses,
‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
   and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’
¹⁶So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ ¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.

God’s Wrath and Mercy

19 You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ ²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ ²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? ²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; ²³and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea,
‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”,
   and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’
²⁶ ‘And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”,
   there they shall be called children of the living God.’

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus^* to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’ ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ ⁴¹‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii,^* and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’ ⁴³Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus^* said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ ⁴⁴Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ ⁴⁸Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

Some Women Accompany Jesus

8Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, ²as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, ³and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them^* out of their resources.