Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
2 Listen! God is the one who saves me!
I will continue to trust him.
I will not be afraid because the Lord himself makes me strong.
He keeps me safe. He rescues us from our enemies.’
3 When God does that, it will make you very happy.
You will be safe, like someone who gets plenty of good water from a well to drink.
4 At that time, you will say, ‘Praise the Lord!
Thank him for his help!
Tell all the nations about the great things that God has done.
Tell them that he is very great!
5 Sing songs to praise the Lord,
because he has done wonderful things!
Cause everyone in the world to know it!
6 Everyone who lives in Zion,
shout aloud and sing with joy!
The Holy God of Israel is great,
and he lives among you.’
8 I, the Lord God, am carefully watching you Israelites. I see that you are a wicked nation, so I will remove you from the earth. But I will not completely destroy all the descendants of Jacob.’ That is what the Lord says.
9 ‘Listen to me! I will cause trouble to come to Israel's family, as they live among other nations. It will be like a person who shakes a sieve to remove dirt from grain. 10 Those among my people who do bad things will die. They say, “God will not send trouble to us. Nothing bad will happen to us.” But their enemies will kill those bad people in war.’
The Israelites will be strong again
11 The Lord says, ‘When that time comes, I will make David's kingdom strong again. It has become like a broken hut, but I will repair it. I will cause it to become as good and strong as it was when king David ruled. 12 You Israelites will fight the Edomites who still remain. You will win against them and the other nations that once belonged to me.’
That is what the Lord says, and he will do it.
13 The Lord says, ‘The time will come when food will grow very well in your fields. People will need to work quickly to cut down all their crops before they plough the ground to plant again. Lots of grapes will grow on your vines. People will work quickly to make wine from the grapes before they plant new vines. So much juice will pour out of the grapes that it will run down the hills!
14 I will bring the people of Israel, my people, back to their own land. Enemies destroyed their cities, but now my people will build them again. They will live safely in them. My people will plant vines. They will drink wine from their grapes. They will eat the fruit from trees that they have planted in their gardens. 15 And I will plant my people in their own land. That is the land that I have given to them, and nobody will ever pull them out of that land.’
That is what the Lord your God says.
John the Baptist is born
57 The time arrived for Elizabeth to have her baby. She had a son. 58 Her family and the people who lived near her heard about her baby. They knew that the Lord had been very kind to her. They saw that she was happy. So they were happy too. 59 When the child was eight days old, people met together to circumcise him.[a] They wanted to call the child Zechariah. This was the same name that his father had.
60 Elizabeth said, ‘No. His name will be John.’
61 They replied, ‘But you do not have anyone in your family called John. That cannot be right.’ 62 So they used their hands to make signs to the baby's father. They wanted to ask him what his son's name should be.[b]
63 Zechariah asked for something to write on. He wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Everyone was very surprised at what he wrote. 64 Immediately, Zechariah could speak again. He could speak easily. He began to thank God aloud.[c]
65 The people who lived near Zechariah and Elizabeth were very surprised. They saw how great God was. Many people who lived in the hills of Judea also talked about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard about these things thought about them. They asked each other, ‘When this child becomes a man, what will he be?’ They could see that God really was with him.
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