The Words of Lemuel

31 The words of King Lemuel, the pronouncement which his mother taught him:

Description of a Worthy Woman

God Will Bless Judah and Ephraim

10 Ask for ^(A)rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain—

The Doomed Flock

11 Open your doors, Lebanon,

⁴ This is what the Lord my God says: “Pasture the flock doomed to ^(E)slaughter. ⁵ Those who buy them slaughter them and ^[c]go ^(F)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for ^(G)I have become rich!’ And their ^(H)own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶ For I will ^(I)no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will ^(J)let the people fall, each into another’s ^[d]power and into the ^[e]power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^(K)not rescue them from their ^[f]power.”

⁷ So I ^(L)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^[g]therefore also the ^(M)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(N)staffs: the one I called ^[h](O)Favor, and the other I called ^(P)Union; so I pastured the flock. ⁸ Then I did away with the three shepherds in ^(Q)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^[i]was tired of me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to ^(R)die, ^[j]let it die, and what is to perish, ^[k]let it perish; and ^[l]let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” ¹⁰ And I took my staff ^[m](S)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^[n](T)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was ^[o]broken on that day, and ^[p]so the ^(U)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(V)wages; but if not, ^[q]never mind!” So they weighed out ^(W)thirty shekels of silver as my wages. ¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(X)potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^(Y)Union, to ^(Z)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ And the Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^(AA)foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^(AB)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will ^(AC)devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

12 The pronouncement of the word of the Lord concerning Israel:

The Lord who ^(A)stretches out the heavens, ^(B)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(C)forms the spirit of a person within him, declares: ² “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(D)cup ^[a]that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(E)Judah. ³ It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(F)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will ^(G)injure themselves severely. And all the ^(H)nations of the earth will be gathered against it. ⁴ On that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with insanity. But I will ^[b]watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ Then the ^[c]clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a ^[d]strong support for us through the Lord of armies, their God.’

⁶ “On that day I will make the ^[e]clans of Judah like a ^(I)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^[f]the ^(J)inhabitants of Jerusalem again live on their own sites in Jerusalem. ⁷ The Lord also will ^(K)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(L)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will ^(M)protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^[g](N)is feeble among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(O)God, like the ^(P)angel of the Lord before them. ⁹ And on that day I will ^(Q)seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “And I will ^(R)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^[h]the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they ^(S)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one ^(T)mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. ¹¹ On that day the ^(U)mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^[i]plain of ^[j]Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; ¹³ the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴ all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

Thanksgiving for Return from Captivity.

A Song of Ascents.

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

14 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the ^[a]leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^(A)they were watching Him ^[b]closely. ² And ^[c]there in front of Him was a man suffering from ^[d]edema. ³ And Jesus responded and said to the ^[e](B)lawyers and ^[f]Pharisees, “^(C)Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. ⁵ And He said to them, “^[g](D)Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ^6 (E)And they could offer no reply to this.

Parable of the Guests

⁷ Now He began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^(F)they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^(G)do not ^[h]take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, ⁹ and the one who invited you ^[i]both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then ^(H)in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But whenever you are invited, go and ^[j]take the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, ^(I)move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are ^[k]dining at the table with you. ^11 (J)For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be your ^[l]repayment. ¹³ But whenever you give a ^[m]banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they ^[n]do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at ^(K)the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^(L)Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶ But He said to him, “^(M)A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; ¹⁷ and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it; ^[o]please consider me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; ^[p]please consider me excused.’ ²⁰ And another one said, ‘^(N)I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’ ²² And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’”

Discipleship Tested

²⁵ Now ^[q]large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “^(O)If anyone comes to Me and does not ^[r]hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not ^(P)carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and ^(Q)consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^(R)does not ^[s]give up all his own possessions.

³⁴ “Therefore, salt is good; but ^(S)if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be ^[t]seasoned? ³⁵ It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. ^(T)The one who has ears to hear, ^[u]let him hear.”