Jer. 12:5–17

12:5 The Lord answered,

“If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out,

how will you be able to compete with horses?

And if you feel secure only in safe and open country,

how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River?

6As a matter of fact, even your own brothers

and the members of your own family have betrayed you as well.

Even they have plotted to do away with you.

So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you.

7“I will abandon my nation.

I will forsake the people I call my own.

I will turn my beloved people

over to the power of their enemies.

8The people I call my own have turned on me

like a lion in the forest.

They have roared defiantly at me,

so I will treat them as though I hate them.

9The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas.

But other birds of prey are all around them.

Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts.

Let them come and destroy these people I call my own.

10Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people.

They will trample all over my chosen land.

They will turn my beautiful land

into a desolate wilderness.

11They will lay it waste.

It will lie parched and empty before me.

The whole land will be laid waste,

but no one living in it will pay any heed.

12A destructive army will come marching

over the hilltops in the wilderness.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon

against everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe.

13My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds.

They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it.

They will be disappointed in their harvests

because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger.

14“I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their land, and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. 15But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country. 16But they must make sure to learn to follow the religious practices of my people. Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. 17But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” says the Lord.

Ps. 129

129:1 A song of ascents.

“Since my youth they have often attacked me,”

let Israel say.

2“Since my youth they have often attacked me,

but they have not defeated me.

3The plowers plowed my back;

they made their furrows long.

4The Lord is just;

he cut the ropes of the wicked.”

5May all who hate Zion

be humiliated and turned back.

6May they be like the grass on the rooftops,

which withers before one can even pull it up,

7which cannot fill the reaper’s hand

or the lap of the one who gathers the grain.

8Those who pass by will not say,

“May you experience the Lord’s blessing!

We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”

Acts 7:54–8:8

7:54 When they heard these things, they became furious and ground their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look!” he said. “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they covered their ears, shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent. 58When they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They continued to stone Stephen while he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he died. 8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing him.

Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. 3But Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

4Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word. 5Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them. 6The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was performing. 7For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, were coming out of many who were possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed. 8So there was great joy in that city.