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Psalm 69

1  Save me, O God, ♦︎
   for the waters have come up, even to my neck.
2  I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold; ♦︎
   I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me.
3  I have grown weary with crying; my throat is raw; ♦︎
   my eyes have failed from looking so long for my God.
4  Those who hate me without any cause ♦︎
   are more than the hairs of my head;
5  Those who would destroy me are mighty; ♦︎
   my enemies accuse me falsely:
      must I now give back what I never stole?
6  O God, you know my foolishness, ♦︎
   and my faults are not hidden from you.
7  Let not those who hope in you
      be put to shame through me, Lord God of hosts; ♦︎
   let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me,
      O God of Israel.
8  For your sake have I suffered reproach; ♦︎
   shame has covered my face.
9  I have become a stranger to my kindred, ♦︎
   an alien to my mother’s children.
10  Zeal for your house has eaten me up; ♦︎
   the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.
11  I humbled myself with fasting, ♦︎
   but that was turned to my reproach.
12  I put on sackcloth also ♦︎
   and became a byword among them.
13  Those who sit at the gate murmur against me, ♦︎
   and the drunkards make songs about me.
14  But as for me, I make my prayer to you, O Lord; ♦︎
   at an acceptable time, O God.
15  Answer me, O God, in the abundance of your mercy ♦︎
   and with your sure salvation.
16  Draw me out of the mire, that I sink not; ♦︎
   let me be rescued from those who hate me
      and out of the deep waters.
17  Let not the water flood drown me,
      neither the deep swallow me up; ♦︎
   let not the Pit shut its mouth upon me.
18  Answer me, Lord, for your loving-kindness is good; ♦︎
   turn to me in the multitude of your mercies.
19  Hide not your face from your servant; ♦︎
   be swift to answer me, for I am in trouble.
20  Draw near to my soul and redeem me; ♦︎
   deliver me because of my enemies.
21  You know my reproach, my shame and my dishonour; ♦︎
   my adversaries are all in your sight.
22  Reproach has broken my heart; I am full of heaviness. ♦︎
   I looked for some to have pity, but there was no one,
      neither found I any to comfort me.
23  They gave me gall to eat, ♦︎
   and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.
24  Let the table before them be a trap ♦︎
   and their sacred feasts a snare.
25  Let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot see, ♦︎
   and give them continual trembling in their loins.
26  Pour out your indignation upon them, ♦︎
   and let the heat of your anger overtake them.
27  Let their camp be desolate, ♦︎
   and let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
28  For they persecute the one whom you have stricken, ♦︎
   and increase the sorrows of him whom you have pierced.
29  Lay to their charge guilt upon guilt, ♦︎
   and let them not receive your vindication.
30  Let them be wiped out of the book of the living ♦︎
   and not be written among the righteous.
31  As for me, I am poor and in misery; ♦︎
   your saving help, O God, will lift me up.
32  I will praise the name of God with a song; ♦︎
   I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving.
33  This will please the Lord more than an offering of oxen, ♦︎
   more than bulls with horns and hooves.
34  The humble shall see and be glad; ♦︎
   you who seek God, your heart shall live.
35  For the Lord listens to the needy, ♦︎
   and his own who are imprisoned he does not despise.
36  Let the heavens and the earth praise him, ♦︎
   the seas and all that moves in them;
37  For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; ♦︎
   they shall live there and have it in possession.
38  The children of his servants shall inherit it, ♦︎
   and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives had been making offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: ¹⁶‘As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you. ¹⁷Instead, we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. We used to have plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no misfortune. ¹⁸But from the time we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have perished by the sword and by famine.’ ¹⁹And the women said,^* ‘Indeed we will go on making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her; do you think that we made cakes for her, marked with her image, and poured out libations to her without our husbands being involved?’

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who were giving him this answer: ²¹‘As for the offerings that you made in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? ²²The Lord could no longer bear the sight of your evil doings, the abominations that you committed; therefore your land became a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is to this day. ²³It is because you burned offerings, and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his decrees, that this disaster has befallen you, as is still evident today.’

24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you Judeans who are in the land of Egypt, ²⁵Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have accomplished in deeds what you declared in words, saying, “We are determined to perform the vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her.” By all means, keep your vows and make your libations! ²⁶Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you Judeans who live in the land of Egypt: Lo, I swear by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no longer be pronounced on the lips of any of the people of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord God lives.” ²⁷I am going to watch over them for harm and not for good; all the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall perish by the sword and by famine, until not one is left. ²⁸And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have come to the land of Egypt to settle, shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs! ²⁹This shall be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I am going to punish you in this place, in order that you may know that my words against you will surely be carried out: ³⁰Thus says the Lord, I am going to give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies, those who seek his life, just as I gave King Zedekiah of Judah into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.’

A Lamp under a Bushel Basket

21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? ²²For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. ²³Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ ²⁴And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

The Use of Parables

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.