Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁹ Rav-Shakeh addressed them: “Tell Hizkiyahu: ‘Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: “What makes you so confident? ²⁰ Do you think that mere spoken words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this? ²¹ Now look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff — when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him. ²² But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Adonai our God,’ then isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, ‘You must worship before this altar in Yerushalayim’? ²³ All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them. ²⁴ How then can you repulse even one of my master’s lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders! ²⁵ Do you think I have come up to this place to destroy it without Adonai’s approval? Adonai said to me, ‘Attack this land, and destroy it’!”’”

19 On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of Adonai. ² He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and the leading cohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha‘yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz. ³ They said to him, “This is what Hizkiyahu says: ‘Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth. ⁴ Maybe Adonai your God will hear all the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which Adonai your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left.”

⁵ When King Hizkiyahu’s servants came to Yesha‘yahu, ⁶ he said to them, “Tell your master that this is what Adonai says: ‘Don’t be afraid of the words you heard the servants of the king of Ashur use to insult me. ⁷ I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.’”

¹⁸ One of the leaders asked him, “Good rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” ¹⁹ Yeshua said to him, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good but God! ²⁰ You know the mitzvot — ‘Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, honor your father and mother, . . .’”^{[a] 21} He replied, “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” ²² On hearing this Yeshua said to him, “There is one thing you still lack. Sell whatever you have, distribute the proceeds to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me!” ²³ But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.

²⁴ Yeshua looked at him and said, “How hard it is for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!” ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ He said, “What is impossible humanly is possible with God.”

²⁸ Kefa said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” ²⁹ Yeshua answered them, “Yes! I tell you that everyone who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, ³⁰ will receive many times as much in the ‘olam hazeh, and in the ‘olam haba eternal life.”