Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² The messenger who had gone to call Mikhay’hu said to him, “Here, now, the prophets are unanimously predicting success for the king. Please let your word be like one of theirs — say something good.” ¹³ But Mikhay’hu answered, “As Adonai lives, whatever my God says is what I will say.”

¹⁴ When he reached the king, the king asked him, “Mikhay’hu, should we go up and attack Ramot-Gil‘ad, or should we hold off?” He answered, “Go up, you will succeed, they will be handed over to you.” ¹⁵ The king said to him, “How many times do I have to warn you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Adonai?” ¹⁶ Then he said, “I saw all Isra’el scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd; and Adonai said, ‘These men have no leader; let everyone go home in peace.’” ¹⁷ The king of Isra’el said to Y’hoshafat, “Didn’t I tell you that he wouldn’t prophesy good things about me, but bad?”

¹⁸ Mikhay’hu continued: “Therefore, hear the word of Adonai. I saw Adonai sitting on his throne with the whole army of heaven standing on his right and on his left. ¹⁹ Adonai asked, ‘Who will entice Ach’av king of Isra’el to go up to his death at Ramot-Gil‘ad?’ One of them said, ‘Do it this way,’ and another, ‘Do it that way.’ ²⁰ Then a spirit stepped up, stood in front of Adonai and said, ‘I will entice him.’ Adonai asked, ‘How?’ ²¹ He answered, ‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ Adonai said, ‘You will succeed in enticing him. Go, and do it.’ ²² So now Adonai has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours; meanwhile, Adonai has ordained disaster for you.”

²³ Now this is how the copies of the heavenly things had to be purified, but the heavenly things themselves require better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God.

²⁵ Further, he did not enter heaven to offer himself over and over again, like the cohen hagadol who enters the Holiest Place year after year with blood that is not his own; ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer death many times — from the founding of the universe on. But as it is, he has appeared once at the end of the ages in order to do away with sin through the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, ²⁸ so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,^[a] will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him.