Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

14 It was in the second year of Yo’ash son of Y’ho’achaz king of Isra’el that Amatzyah the son of Yo’ash king of Y’hudah began his reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Y’ho‘adan, from Yerushalayim. ³ He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, although not like David his ancestor; he lived the same way as his father Yo’ash. ⁴ However, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and offered on the high places.

⁵ As soon as he had the kingdom firmly under his control, he put to death the servants of his who had murdered the king his father. ⁶ But he did not put the children of the murderers to death, because of what is written in the scroll of the Torah of Moshe, as Adonai ordered when he said, “Fathers are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin.”

⁷ He slaughtered 10,000 men of Edom in the Salt Valley and captured Sela in the war, renaming it Yokte’el, as it is today. ⁸ Then Amatzyah sent messengers to Y’ho’ash the son of Y’ho’achaz, son of Yehu, king of Isra’el, with this challenge: “Come on, let’s have it out face-to-face.” ⁹ Y’ho’ash the king of Isra’el sent this reply to Amatzyah king of Y’hudah: “Once, in the L’vanon, the thistle sent a message to the cedar: ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But a wild animal passed by the thistle and squashed it. ¹⁰ True, you have defeated Edom, and now you’re ambitious. So enjoy the glory, but stay home! Why provoke calamity, to your own ruin, yours and Y’hudah’s too?” ¹¹ But Amatzyah wouldn’t listen. So Y’ho’ash king of Isra’el went up; and he and Amatzyah king of Y’hudah had it out face-to-face at Beit-Shemesh, which belongs to Y’hudah. ¹² Y’hudah was defeated by Isra’el, and every man fled to his tent. ¹³ Y’ho’ash king of Isra’el took Amatzyah king of Y’hudah, the son of Y’ho’ash the son of Achazyah, prisoner at Beit-Shemesh. Then he went to Yerushalayim and demolished the wall of Yerushalayim between the Gate of Efrayim and the Corner Gate, a section 600 feet long. ¹⁴ He took all the gold and silver, all the articles he could find in the house of Adonai and in the treasuries of the royal palace, and hostages; then he returned to Shomron.

4 Again Yeshua began to teach by the lake, but the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the crowd remained on shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things in parables. In the course of his teaching, he said to them: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; ⁶ but when the sun rose, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked it; so that it yielded no grain. ⁸ But other seed fell into rich soil and produced grain; it sprouted, and grew, and yielded a crop — thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown.” ⁹ And he concluded, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”

¹⁰ When Yeshua was alone, the people around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He answered them, “To you the secret of the Kingdom of God has been given; but to those outside, everything is in parables, ¹² so that

¹³ Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you be able to understand any parable? ¹⁴ The sower sows the message. ¹⁵ Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them. ¹⁶ Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; ¹⁷ but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸ Others are those sown among thorns — they hear the message; ¹⁹ but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing. ²⁰ But those sown on rich soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit — thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.”