b-r-cross Today's Readings b-r-cross

Tuesday, 4th June 2024 --- 27 Bashans 1740


Lamentations 3 : 1 - 66

Chapter 3

1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
3Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.
4He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.
5He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
6He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.
7He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
8Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
9He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
10He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.
11He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.
12He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.
13He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.
14I have become the ridicule of all my people--Their taunting song all the day.
15He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
16He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.
17You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
18And I said, "My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD."
19Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
20My soul still remembers And sinks within me.
21This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
22Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
23They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
24"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I 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 hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.
27It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it 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 him, And be full of reproach.
31For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.
33For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.
34To crush under one's feet All the prisoners of the earth,
35To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,
36Or subvert a man in his cause--The Lord does not approve.
37Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?
38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?
39Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?
40Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD;
41Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.
42We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
43You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.
44You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.
45You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
46All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.
47Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.
48My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,
50Till the LORD from heaven Looks down and sees.
51My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
52My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.
53They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.
54The waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!"
55I called on Your name, O LORD, From the lowest pit.
56You have heard my voice: "Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help."
57You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, "Do not fear!"
58O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.
59O LORD, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.
60You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
61You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me,
62The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.
63Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.
64Repay them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.
65Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!
66In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD.


Jonah 1 : 10 - 2 : 7

Chapter 1

10Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?"--for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me."
13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
14Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You."
15So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.
17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

1Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
2And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.
3For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4Then I said, "I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'
5The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
7"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.





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