Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Pledge of Integrity

Psalm 101

¹⁹ So the Rab-shakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: ‘What is this confidence you’ve relied on? ²⁰ You say you have a plan and military force for the battle—they are only words of a lip. Who do you rely on now, so that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Behold, you rely on this splintered reed as a staff—Egypt! If a man leans on it, it will go into the palm of his hand and pierce it—thus Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

²² “But if you say to me: ‘We trust in Adonai our God’—is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and then said to Judah and Jerusalem: ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?

²³ “So now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses—if you could put riders of your own on them! ²⁴ So, how can you repulse a single lieutenant—the least of my master’s servants? Yes, you’re relying on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen.

²⁵ “Moreover, have I now come up against this land to destroy it without Adonai’s approval? Adonai said to me: ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”

Hezekiah’s Cry of Desperation

19 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of Adonai. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe and the senior kohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz.

³ Then they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, rebuke and contempt. For children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength for giving birth. ⁴ Perhaps Adonai your God, hearing all the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to mock the living God, will rebuke the words which Adonai your God has heard. So offer prayer for the remnant that is left.”

⁵ When the officials of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them: “Thus you will say to your master, ‘Thus says Adonai: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the boys of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I am putting a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor, and will return to his own country; then I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

¹⁸ And a religious leader inquired of Yeshua, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why are you calling Me good?” Yeshua said to him. “No one is good except One—that is God. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”^[a]

²¹ The man said, “All these I have kept since my youth.”

²² When Yeshua heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all, as much as you have, and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” ²³ But upon hearing these things, he became deeply distressed, for he was very rich.

²⁴ Gazing at him, Yeshua said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Then those who heard said, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁷ But Yeshua said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”^[b]

²⁸ Then Peter said, “Look, we’ve left everything of our own to follow You.”

²⁹ And Yeshua said to them, “Amen, I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ who will not receive many times as much in this age; and in the olam ha-ba, eternal life.”