Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
126 When Jehovah brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! 2 How we laughed and sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
3 Yes, glorious things! What wonder! What joy! 4 May we be refreshed[a] as by streams in the desert.
5 Those who sow tears shall reap joy. 6 Yes, they go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, and return singing, carrying their sheaves.
12 Then Jeremiah spoke in his defense. “The Lord sent me,” he said, “to prophesy against this Temple and this city. He gave me every word of all that I have spoken. 13 But if you stop your sinning and begin obeying the Lord your God, he will cancel all the punishment he has announced against you. 14 As for me, I am helpless and in your power—do with me as you think best. 15 But there is one thing sure, if you kill me, you will be killing an innocent man, and the responsibility will lie upon you and upon this city and upon every person living in it; for it is absolutely true that the Lord sent me to speak every word that you have heard from me.”
16 Then the officials and people said to the priests and false prophets, “This man does not deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”
17 Then some of the wise old men stood and spoke to all the people standing around and said:
18 “The decision is right; for back in the days when Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, he told the people that God said: ‘This hill shall be plowed like an open field and this city of Jerusalem razed into heaps of stone, and a forest shall grow at the top where the great Temple now stands!’ 19 But did King Hezekiah and the people kill him for saying this? No, they turned from their wickedness and worshiped the Lord and begged the Lord to have mercy upon them; and the Lord held back the terrible punishment he had pronounced against them. If we kill Jeremiah for giving us the messages of God, who knows what God will do to us!”
20 Another true prophet of the Lord, Uriah (son of Shemaiah) from Kiriath-jearim, was also denouncing the city and the nation at the same time as Jeremiah was. 21 But when King Jehoiakim and the army officers and officials heard what he was saying, the king sent to kill him. Uriah heard about it and fled to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan (son of Achbor) to Egypt along with several other men to capture Uriah. 23 They took him prisoner and brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who butchered him with a sword and had him buried in an unmarked grave.
24 But Ahikam (son of Shaphan), the royal secretary,[a] stood with Jeremiah and persuaded the court not to turn him over to the mob to kill him.
11 (e) If the Jewish priests and their laws had been able to save us, why then did God need to send Christ as a priest with the rank of Melchizedek, instead of sending someone with the rank of Aaron—the same rank all other priests had?
12-14 And when God sends a new kind of priest, his law must be changed to permit it. As we all know, Christ did not belong to the priest-tribe of Levi, but came from the tribe of Judah, which had not been chosen for priesthood; Moses had never given them that work.
15 So we can plainly see that God’s method changed, for Christ, the new High Priest who came with the rank of Melchizedek, 16 did not become a priest by meeting the old requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but on the basis of power flowing from a life that cannot end. 17 And the psalmist points this out when he says of Christ, “You are a priest forever with the rank of Melchizedek.”
18 Yes, the old system of priesthood based on family lines was canceled because it didn’t work. It was weak and useless for saving people. 19 It never made anyone really right with God. But now we have a far better hope, for Christ makes us acceptable to God, and now we may draw near to him.
20 God took an oath that Christ would always be a Priest, 21 although he never said that of other priests. Only to Christ he said, “The Lord has sworn and will never change his mind: You are a Priest forever, with the rank of Melchizedek.” 22 Because of God’s oath, Christ can guarantee forever the success of this new and better arrangement.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.