Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Sing a new song!^[a]

The king of Babylon will die

³ At that time, the Lord will let you live safely, without trouble and without pain. You will no longer have to work for cruel people, as their slaves. ⁴ Then you will laugh at the king of Babylon. You will say to him,

‘Now you cannot be cruel to us any more! Your power to cause trouble has finished! ⁵ The Lord has destroyed the authority of wicked rulers like you.

⁶ You used your power to attack people all the time. In your anger, you ruled over other nations, and you never stopped being cruel to them.

⁷ But now there is peace in the whole world. People can live safely. Everyone is so happy that they are singing! ⁸ Even the pine trees and the cedar trees in Lebanon are happy because your power has finished. They say to you, “Now God has knocked you down. So nobody will come again to cut us down!”

⁹ The deep hole of death below the earth is ready to receive you! People there want to meet you. The spirits of those who ruled on the earth have heard that you are coming. They are standing up from their thrones. ¹⁰ All of them will say to you, “Now you have become as weak as we are! You are weak like us!”

¹¹ Your great power has now come down low, into the deep hole of death. People no longer praise you with their harps. Now you will lie on a bed of maggots.^[a] A blanket of worms will cover you.

Herod's soldiers kill John the Baptist

14 At that time, people told Herod about the things that Jesus was doing.^{[a] 2} Herod said to his servants, ‘That man Jesus is really John the Baptist. John died but he has become alive again. That is the reason why this man can do these very powerful things.’

³ Before that, Herod had commanded his soldiers, ‘Take hold of John. Tie his hands and feet and put him in prison.’ Herod had done this because of his wife Herodias. Before Herod married her, she was the wife of Herod's brother Philip. ⁴ John had said to Herod, ‘Herodias was your brother's wife. So it is not right for you to have her as your wife.’^[b]

⁵ Herod wanted to tell his soldiers that they must kill John. But the people thought that John was a prophet from God. So Herod was afraid to kill him.

⁶ One day, when it was Herod's birthday, he asked people to come to a special meal. The daughter of Herodias danced in front of him and his visitors. Her dance caused Herod to become very happy. ⁷ He said to the girl, ‘Ask me for anything that you want. I make a strong promise that I will give it to you.’ ⁸ Herodias suggested to her daughter, ‘Ask Herod to give you John's head.’ So the girl said to Herod, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist on a plate.’ ⁹ Then Herod felt sad. But he had made a special promise to the girl, and his visitors had heard him. So he sent his men to do what she had asked for. ¹⁰ He said to a soldier, ‘Go to the prison and cut off John's head.’ ¹¹ The soldier did this. Then he brought the head on a plate and he gave it to the girl. The girl took it and gave it to her mother.

¹² After this, John's disciples went to the prison. They took away John's body and they buried it. Then they went and they told Jesus what had happened.