Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

ש SHIN

The Lord Condemns Ahab

^17 (A)Then the word of the Lord came to ^(B)Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸ “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, ^(C)who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. ¹⁹ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(D)“In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”

²⁰ So Ahab said to Elijah, ^(E)“Have you found me, O my enemy?”

And he answered, “I have found you, because ^(F)you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord: ²¹ ‘Behold, ^(G)I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your ^(H)posterity, and will cut off from Ahab ^(I)every male in Israel, both ^(J)bond and free. ²² I will make your house like the house of ^(K)Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of ^(L)Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin.’ ²³ And ^(M)concerning Jezebel the Lord also spoke, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the ^[a]wall of Jezreel.’ ²⁴ The dogs shall eat ^(N)whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”

²⁵ But ^(O)there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, ^(P)because Jezebel his wife ^[b]stirred him up. ²⁶ And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all ^(Q)that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

²⁷ So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and ^(R)put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.

²⁸ And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹ “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he ^(S)has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. ^(T)In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”

Love for God and One Another

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but ^(A)test the spirits, whether they are of God; because ^(B)many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: ^(C)Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess ^[a]that Jesus ^[b]Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

⁴ You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than ^(D)he who is in the world. ^5 (E)They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and ^(F)the world hears them. ⁶ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. ^(G)By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.