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.

Brothers and sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

The Lord said to Samuel: “Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way.

What can I do with you, Ephraim?/ What can I do with you, Judah?/ Your piety is like a morning cloud,/ like the dew that early passes away./ For this reason I smote them through the prophets,/ I slew them by the words of my mouth;/ For it is love that I desire, not ­sacrifice,/ and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

I will heal their defection, says the Lord,/ I will love them freely;/ for my wrath is turned away from them./ I will be like the dew for Israel:/ he shall blossom like the lily;/ He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,/ and put forth his shoots./ His splendor shall be like the olive tree/ and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar./ Again they shall dwell in his shade/ and raise grain;/ They shall blossom like the vine,/ and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

Thus says the Lord: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.

Moses spoke to the people and said: “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.