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¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased;
   our dancing has been turned to mourning.
¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head;
   woe to us, for we have sinned!
¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are sick,
   because of these things our eyes have grown dim:
¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
   jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, reign for ever;
   your throne endures to all generations.
²⁰ Why have you forgotten us completely?
   Why have you forsaken us these many days?
²¹ Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
   renew our days as of old—
²² unless you have utterly rejected us,
   and are angry with us beyond measure.

¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

21 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled^* in his fleshly body^* through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— ²³provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.