Lamentations 2
1 “How did the Lord darken
The daughter of Zion in His wrath?
He cast down the glory of Israel
From heaven to earth,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His wrath.
2 “The Lord has swallowed up and not spared
All the beauty of Jacob.
In His anger, He brought down the strongholds
Of the daughter of Judah.
He brought them down to the ground;
He desecrated her king and its princes.
3 “In fierce anger, He broke off every horn of Israel
And drew back His right hand
From the face of the enemy.
He blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire,
And it devoured everything all around.
4 “He bent His bow like an enemy
And strengthened His right hand like an adversary.
He put to death all the objects of my desire,
And poured out His anger like a fire
On the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.
5 “The Lord became like an enemy
And swallowed up Israel.
He brought down all his palaces,
Destroyed his strongholds,
And multiplied shame and humiliation
In the daughter of Judah.
6 “He opened and spread out His tabernacle like a vine
And destroyed His feast.
The Lord forgot His festivals and the Sabbath
Which He appointed in Zion,
And in the fury of His wrath
He provoked king, priest, and prince.
7 “The Lord rejected His altar
And abandoned His sanctuary.
By the hand of the enemy,
He broke in pieces the wall of her palaces.
They uttered their voice in the house of the Lord
As on a feast day.
8 “The Lord turned to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
And has not turned back His hand from trampling her.
Therefore the bulwark mourned,
And the wall weakened with it.
9 “Her gates sank into the ground,
And He destroyed and broke her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles,
And the Law is no more;
And indeed, her prophets see no vision from the Lord.
10 “The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence.
They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
They have brought down to the ground
The leading virgins in Jerusalem.
11 “My eyes fail with tears,
And my heart is troubled.
My glory is poured out upon the ground
At the destruction of the daughter of my people,
While the child and the nursing infants
Faint in streets of the city.
12 “They say to their mothers,
‘Where is the wheat and wine?’
While they faint like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
While their lives are being poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.
13 “What shall I testify to you,
Or what shall I compare to you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
Who will save and comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For the cup of your destruction is great;
Who shall heal you?
14 “Your prophets have seen foolishness
And worthless things for you,
But they did not reveal your wrongdoing
So as to turn back your captivity.
Instead, they saw worthless burdens
And banishment for you.
15 “All who pass by clap their hands at you,
And they hiss and shake their head
At the daughter of Jerusalem.
‘Is this the city they call
The crown of glory,
The joy of all the earth?’
16 “All your enemies have opened their mouths against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, ‘We have swallowed her up!
Besides, this is the day we have looked for;
We have found it; we have seen it.’
17 “The Lord has done what He purposed;
He has carried out His words
Which He commanded in days of old.
He pulled down, and has not spared,
And has caused the enemy to rejoice over you.
He has exalted the horn of those who oppress you.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord,
‘O wall of Zion,
Pour down tears like torrents, day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
May your eyes have no rest, O daughter.
19 ‘Arise, rejoice in the night,
At the beginning of your watch.
Pour out your heart like water
Before the face of the Lord,
And lift your hands up to Him
For the life of your infants,
Who grow weak in hunger
On the corner of every street.’
20 ‘Behold, O Lord, and look
For whom You have gathered thus.
Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb?
The cook has made a gleaning;
Shall the infants who nurse the breasts be put to death?
Will you kill priest and prophet
In the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 ‘The child and the old man
Sleep in the street.
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
You killed them with sword and famine
In the day of Your wrath;
You massacred and have not spared.
22 ‘He called my sojourner round about me to a feast day.
There was no one who escaped, or were left
In the day of the Lord’s wrath,
As I strengthened and multiplied
All my enemies.’
Psalm 118:145–160
145 I cry out with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord;
I shall search Your ordinances.
146 I cry out to You; save me,
And I shall keep Your testimonies.
147 I arose at midnight and cried out;
I hoped in Your words.
148 My eyes awoke before dawn
That I might meditate on Your teachings.
149 Hear my voice, O Lord, according to Your mercy;
Give me life according to Your judgment.
150 Those who persecute me in lawlessness drew near;
They are far removed from Your law.
151 You are near, O Lord;
All Your commandments are truth.
152 From the beginning I knew Your testimonies,
That You established them forever.
153 Behold my humiliation and deliver me,
For I have not forgotten Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
Give me life because of Your word.
155 Salvation is far from sinners,
For they have not searched Your ordinances.
156 Your compassions are many, O Lord;
Give me life according to Your judgment.
157 Many are those who pursue and afflict me,
But I did not turn away from Your testimonies.
158 I saw those acting foolishly, and I yearned for You;
For they did not keep Your teachings.
159 Behold, I love Your commandments;
O Lord, in Your mercy, give me life.
160 The beginning of Your words is truth,
And all the judgments of Your righteousness are forever.
Proverbs 27:1–5
1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what the next day will bring forth.
2 Let your neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips.
3 A stone is heavy, and sand is cumbersome;
But the wrath of a man without discernment is heavier than both.
4 Wrath is merciless and anger passionate,
But jealousy supports nothing.
5 Open reproofs are better than hidden love.
2 Peter 3
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
The Day of the Lord
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Be Steadfast
14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.