Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
This is a song that David wrote.
Please help me, Lord![a]
143 Lord, I pray to you for help.
Please listen to me.
Answer me, because you do what is right,
and I know that I can trust you.
2 Do not judge me, your servant.
Nobody is righteous when they stand in front of you.
3 My enemies are chasing me.
They knock me down to the ground.
They make me live in dark places,
like people who have been dead for a long time.
4 My strength is leaving me,
and I feel very upset.
5 I remember what happened many years ago.
I think carefully about all the good things that you have done.
6 I raise my hands to pray to you.
I need you to help me,
like dry ground needs rain.
Selah
7 Please answer me soon, Lord.
I am losing my strength.
Do not turn away from me.
If you do, I will join those people who are going down
into the deep hole of death.
8 Every morning, help me to remember your faithful love,
because I am trusting in you.
Show me how I should live to please you,
because I know that I belong to you.
9 Lord, save me from my enemies.
I run to you to keep me safe.
10 Teach me to do what pleases you,
because you are my God.
Let your kind Spirit lead me,
so that I can walk in a safe place.
11 Your name is great, Lord,
so please keep my life safe.
You do what is right,
so bring me out of my troubles.
12 I am your servant and you always love me.
Please show how much you love me,
and destroy my enemies.
Yes, kill all those who want to kill me!
Jeremiah buys a field
32 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah had ruled Judah for ten years. At that time, King Nebuchadnezzar had ruled in Babylon for 18 years. 2 Nebuchadnezzar's army had made their camp all around Jerusalem. Jeremiah was a prisoner in the city. Guards kept him in a yard of the palace of the king of Judah.[a]
3 King Zedekiah had put Jeremiah in prison there. He did not like the messages from God that Jeremiah was speaking. He said to Jeremiah, ‘You should stop saying these things! Do not continue to say, “The Lord will put this city under the power of the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon will take the city for himself. 4 Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not escape from Babylon's army. They will take him to the king of Babylon. Zedekiah will have to stand in front of the king of Babylon and answer his questions. 5 They will take Zedekiah away to Babylon as their prisoner. He will stay there until the Lord has punished him completely. If you continue to fight against Babylon's army, you will never win.” ’ That was the Lord's message that Jeremiah had told Zedekiah.
6 While Jeremiah was in prison, the Lord said to him, 7 ‘Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to visit you. He will say to you, “I want you to buy my field in Anathoth. The law says that I should offer it to you first, because you are my relative.” ’
8 This happened as the Lord had said it would happen. My cousin Hanamel came to visit me in the prison. He said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin's tribe. I offer it to you first, as my relative. So you can buy it for yourself.’
When this happened, I realized I had really heard the Lord's message. 9 So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed 17 shekels of silver to pay him for it.
36 You are right to say, “War, famine and disease will cause the king of Babylon to get power over this city.” But I, the Lord, Israel's God, tell you this: 37 I will certainly bring my people back from the foreign countries where I will send them. I will send them away as prisoners because they have made me very angry. But I will bring them back to this place so that they can live here safely. 38 They will be my people and I will be their God. 39 I will make them all want to do one thing. They will want to live in a way that always pleases me. They will do that so that they enjoy good lives and their children also enjoy good lives after them. 40 I will make a covenant with them that will continue for ever. I will promise always to do good things for them. They will want to respect me and obey me so that they never turn away from me again. That is what I will do for them. 41 I will be happy to help them with good things. I promise them faithfully that I will put them in this land again. They will grow like strong plants.’
The Sadducees ask Jesus a question
23 On that day, some Sadducees also came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die. They wanted to ask Jesus a question.[a]
24 ‘Teacher,’ they said to him, ‘Moses said in the Bible: A man may die and leave behind a wife but no children. Then that man's brother must marry the woman. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. 25 Once, there were seven brothers who lived here. The oldest brother married a woman. Then he died before they had any children. So the second brother married the woman. 26 But then he also died with no children. So a third brother married this woman. And the same thing happened to all the brothers down to the seventh brother. They all died before the woman had any children. 27 After all this, the woman also died. 28 You teach that one day dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’
29 Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. 30 One day, God will raise people up after they have died. They will become alive again. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 It is true that one day dead people will become alive again. You have read in the Bible about what God said to you: 32 “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.” God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive.’[b]
33 The crowd heard this. They were very surprised about what Jesus was teaching.
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