Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Director: With stringed instruments. A Davidic instruction,^[a] when the Ziphites came and told Saul, “David is hiding among us, is he not?”

A Prayer in Times of Trouble

⁵ After this, the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, approached Samaria, and began a three year siege. ⁶ As a result, during the ninth year of the reign of^[a] Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelis off to Assyria, placing them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in cities ruled by the Medes.

The Idolatry of the Northern Kingdom

⁷ This happened because the Israelis had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt and from the domination^[b] of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because^[c] they were fearing other gods, ⁸ and because they were following^[d] the rules of the nations whom the Lord had expelled before the Israelis and that the kings of Israel had practiced.

⁹ The Israelis practiced secret things that were not right, offending the Lord their God. In addition, they built high places for use by all their towns, watchtowers, and fortified cities. ¹⁰ They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and in the shade of every green tree, ¹¹ where they made offerings on all the high places, as did the nations whom the Lord had expelled before them. They also practiced other^[e] wickedness, provoking the Lord to become angry, ¹² and they served idols, a practice that the Lord had warned them, “You are not to do this.”

¹³ Nevertheless, the Lord had warned both Israel and Judah by means^[f] of every prophet and seer: “Turn away from your evil practices^[g] and keep my commandments and statutes according to the entire Law that I gave your ancestors and that I sent to you through my servants, the prophets.” ¹⁴ But they would not listen. Instead, they were stubborn,^[h] just like their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected the Lord’s^[i] statutes, the covenant that he had made with their ancestors, and his warnings that he gave them. They pursued meaninglessness—and became meaningless themselves—as they followed the lifestyles of the nations that surrounded them, a practice that the Lord had warned them not to do.

¹⁶ They abandoned all of the commands given by^[j] the Lord their God, crafted for themselves cast images of two calves, constructed an Asherah, worshipped all of the stars in heaven, and served Baal. ¹⁷ They passed their sons and daughters through fire, practiced divination, cast spells, and sold themselves to practice what the Lord considered to be evil, thereby^[k] provoking him. ¹⁸ As a result, the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. No one was left except for the tribe of Judah.

²⁹ “How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. ³⁰ Then you say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our ancestors, we would have had no part with them in shedding^[a] the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ Therefore, you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Then finish what your ancestors started!^{[b] 33} You snakes, you children of serpents! How can you escape being condemned to hell?^[c]

³⁴ “That is why I am sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. ³⁵ As a result, you will be held accountable for^[d] all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel^[e] to the blood of Berechiah’s son Zechariah,^[f] whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ I tell all of you^[g] with certainty, all these things will happen to those living today.”^[h]

Jesus Rebukes Jerusalem^(A)

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! ³⁸ Look! Your house is left abandoned! ³⁹ I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[i]