Bible Verses About Select Readings

With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy

before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

There on the willows we hung our harps,

for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”

How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”

before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,

on the day the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when those grinding cease because they are few and those watching through windows see dimly,

when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,

when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels— for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is crushed, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well,

before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

The wilderness and the land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.

Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!

Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.