Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

125 Those who trust in the Lord are steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.

² Just as the mountains surround and protect Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds and protects his people. ³ For the wicked shall not rule the godly, lest the godly be forced to do wrong. ⁴ O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are right with the Lord; ⁵ but lead evil men to execution. And let Israel have quietness and peace.

¹⁶ Then those who feared and loved the Lord spoke often of him to each other. And he had a Book of Remembrance drawn up in which he recorded the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him.

¹⁷ “They shall be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares an obedient and dutiful son. ¹⁸ Then you will see the difference between God’s treatment of good men and bad, between those who serve him and those who don’t.

4 “Watch now,” the Lord Almighty declares, “the day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. The proud and wicked will be burned up like straw; like a tree, they will be consumed—roots and all.

² “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. ³ Then you will tread upon the wicked as ashes underfoot,” says the Lord Almighty. ⁴ “Remember to obey the laws I gave all Israel through Moses my servant on Mount Horeb.

⁵ “See, I will send you another prophet like Elijah^[a] before the coming of the great and dreadful judgment day of God. ⁶ His preaching will bring fathers and children together again, to be of one mind and heart, for they will know that if they do not repent, I will come and utterly destroy their land.”

⁹ As they descended the mountainside he told them never to mention what they had seen until after he had risen^[a] from the dead. ¹⁰ So they kept it to themselves, but often talked about it, and wondered what he meant by “rising from the dead.”

¹¹ Now they began asking him about something the Jewish religious leaders often spoke of, that Elijah must return before the Messiah could come.^{[b] 12-13} Jesus agreed that Elijah must come first and prepare the way—and that he had, in fact, already come! And that he had been terribly mistreated, just as the prophets had predicted. Then Jesus asked them what the prophets could have been talking about when they predicted that the Messiah^[c] would suffer and be treated with utter contempt.