Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
161 Influential people have persecuted me for no reason,
but it is only your words that fill my heart with terror.
162 I find joy in your promise
like someone who finds a priceless treasure.
163 I hate lying; I am disgusted with it.
I love your teachings.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous regulations.
165 There is lasting peace for those who love your teachings.
Nothing can make those people stumble.
166 I have waited with hope for you to save me, O Yahweh.
I have carried out your commandments.
167 I have obeyed your written instructions.
I have loved them very much.
168 I have followed your guiding principles and your written instructions,
because my whole life is in front of you.
17 Then Yahweh spoke his word to Elijah from Tishbe: 18 “Go, meet King Ahab of Israel, who lives in Samaria. He went to confiscate Naboth’s vineyard. 19 Tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh asks: Have you murdered someone just to confiscate a vineyard?’ Then tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says: At the place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lick up your blood.’”
20 Ahab asked Elijah, “So you’ve found me, my enemy?”
Elijah answered, “I found you. Because you sold yourself to do what Yahweh considers evil. 21 So I am going to bring evil on you. I will destroy your descendants. I will destroy every male[a] in Ahab’s house, whether slave or freeman in Israel. 22 I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah, because you made me furious. You led Israel to sin.”
23 Then Yahweh also spoke through Elijah about Jezebel: “The dogs will eat Jezebel inside the walls of Jezreel. 24 If anyone from Ahab’s house dies in the city, dogs will eat him. If anyone dies in the country, birds will eat him.”
25 There was no one else like Ahab. At the urging of his wife, he sold himself to do what Yahweh considered evil. 26 He did many disgusting things as a result of worshiping idols as the Amorites had done. (Yahweh confiscated their land for Israel.)
27 When Ahab heard these things, he tore his clothes in distress and dressed in sackcloth. He fasted, lay in sackcloth, and walked around depressed.
28 Then Yahweh spoke his word to Elijah from Tishbe: 29 “Do you see how Ahab is humbling himself in my presence? Because he’s humbling himself in my presence, I will not let any evil happen to his family while he is alive. I will bring evil on it during his son’s lifetime.”
Test People Who Say They Have God’s Spirit
4 Dear friends, don’t believe all people who say that they have the Spirit. Instead, test them. See whether the spirit they have is from God, because there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how you can recognize God’s Spirit: Every person who declares that Yeshua Christ has come as a human has the Spirit that is from God. 3 But every person who doesn’t declare that Yeshua Christ has come as a human has a spirit that isn’t from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that you have heard is coming. That spirit is already in the world.
4 Dear children, you belong to God. So you have won the victory over these people, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 These people belong to the world. That’s why they speak the thoughts of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever doesn’t belong to God doesn’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.