In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim, who married a very beautiful and God-fearing woman, Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah; her pious parents had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses.
Brothers and sisters: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel.
I knew their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings.
The wicked said among themselves,/ thinking not aright:/ “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;/ he sets himself against our doings,/ Reproaches us for transgressions of the law/ and charges us with violations of our training./ He professes to have knowledge of God/ and styles himself a child of the Lord./ To us he is the censure of our thoughts;/ merely to see him is a hardship for us,/ Because his life is not like that of others,/ and different are his ways./ He judges us debased;/ he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure./ He calls blest the destiny of the just/ and boasts that God is his Father./ Let us see whether his words be true;/ let us find out what will happen to him./ For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him/ and deliver him from the hand of his foes./ With revilement and torture let us put him to the test/ that we may have proof of his gentleness/ and try his patience./ Let us condemn him to a shameful death;/ for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”/ These were their thoughts, but they erred;/ for their wickedness blinded them,/ and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;/ neither did they count on a recompense of holiness/ nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.
Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.
The Lord spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.
Thus says the Lord:/ In a time of favor I answer you,/ on the day of salvation I help you;/ and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,/ To restore the land/ and allot the desolate heritages,/ Saying to the prisoners: Come out!/ To those in darkness: Show yourselves!/ Along the ways they shall find pasture,/ on every bare height shall their pastures be./ They shall not hunger or thirst,/ nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;/ For he who pities them leads them/ and guides them beside springs of water./ I will cut a road through all my mountains,/ and make my highways level./ See, some shall come from afar,/ others from the north and the west,/ and some from the land of Syene./ Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,/ break forth into song, you mountains./ For the Lord comforts his people/ and shows mercy to his afflicted.
The angel brought me, Ezekiel, back to the entrance of the temple of the Lord, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the façade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
Thus says the Lord:/ Lo, I am about to create new heavens/ and a new earth;/ The things of the past shall not be remembered/ or come to mind./ Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness/ in what I create;/ For I create Jerusalem to be a joy/ and its people to be a delight;/ I will rejoice in Jerusalem/ and exult in my people./ No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,/ or the sound of crying;/ No longer shall there be in it/ an infant who lives but a few days,/ or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;/ He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,/ and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed./ They shall live in the houses they build,/ and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.
