Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

כ Kaph

⁸ But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.

⁹ When I looked, a hand was sent to me. And a scroll was in it. ¹⁰ And He spread it before me. And there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3 Moreover He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. ² So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll.

³ He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it, and it was as honey for sweetness in my mouth.

⁴ Then He said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵ For you are not being sent to a people of foreign speech and hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶ nor to many peoples of foreign speech and hard language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me. For all the house of Israel is impudent and obstinate. ⁸ But I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ As emery harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

¹⁰ Moreover He said to me: Son of man, all My words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears. ¹¹ Go to the captives, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, “Thus says the Lord God.”

Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶ I say again, let no one think that I am a fool. Otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, so that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸ Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ¹⁹ For you tolerate fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise. ²⁰ For you permit it if a man brings you into bondage, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man exalts himself, or if a man strikes you on the face. ²¹ I say to my reproach that we were too weak for that.

But whenever anyone is bold (I speak foolishly), I am bold also. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers; ²⁷ in weariness and painfulness, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. ²⁸ Beside the external things, the care of all the churches pressures me daily. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I am not distressed?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things which concern my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forevermore, knows that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me. ³³ But I was let down by the wall through a window in a basket and escaped his hands.