Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Trusting Money Is Foolish
For the director of music. A song of the sons of Korah.
49 Listen to this, all you nations.
Listen, all you who live on earth.
2 Listen, both great and small,
rich and poor together.
3 What I say is wise.
My heart speaks with understanding.
4 I will pay attention to a wise saying.
I will explain my riddle on the harp.
5 Why should I be afraid of bad days?
Why should I fear when evil men surround me?
6 They trust in their money.
They brag about their riches.
7 No one can buy back the life of another person.
No one can pay God for his own life.
8 The price of a life is high.
No payment is ever enough.
9 Do people live forever?
Don’t they all face death?
10 See, even wise men die.
Fools and stupid people also die.
They leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves will always be their homes.
They will live there from now on,
even though they named places after themselves.
12 Even rich people do not live forever.
Like the animals, people die.
1 These are the words of the Teacher. He is a son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 The Teacher says,
“Useless! Useless!
Completely useless!
All things are useless.”
3 What do people really gain
from all the hard work they do here on earth?
Things Never Change
4 People live, and people die.
But the earth continues forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun sets.
Then it hurries back to the place where it rises again.
6 The wind blows to the south.
Then it blows to the north.
It blows from one direction and then another.
Then it turns around and repeats the same pattern, going nowhere.
7 All the rivers flow to the sea.
But the sea never becomes full.
8 Everything is boring.
It makes you so tired you don’t even want to talk about it.
Words come again and again to our ears.
But we never can hear enough.
Nor can we ever really see all we want to see.
9 All things continue the way they have been since the beginning.
The same things will be done that have always been done.
There is nothing new here on earth.
10 A person might say,
“Look, this is new!”
But really it has always been here.
It was here before we were!
11 People don’t remember what happened long ago.
In the future, people will not remember what happens now.
And later, other people will not remember what was done before them.
A Rich Young Man’s Question
17 Jesus started to leave, but a man ran to him and fell on his knees before Jesus. The man asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to get the life that never ends?”
18 Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commands: ‘You must not murder anyone. You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not steal. You must not tell lies about your neighbor in court. You must not cheat. Honor your father and mother.’”[a]
20 The man said, “Teacher, I have obeyed all these commands since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked straight at the man and loved him. Jesus said, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Go and sell everything you have, and give the money to the poor. You will have a reward in heaven. Then come and follow me.”
22 He was very sad to hear Jesus say this, and he left. The man was sad because he was very rich.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.