Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

37 The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Jehovah, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² And he caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many ^[a]in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. ³ And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord Jehovah, thou knowest. ⁴ Again he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. ⁵ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause ^[b]breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put ^[c]breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a ^[d]noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the ^[e]wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the ^[f]wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O ^[g]breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

¹¹ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah.

Hope in the Lord’s forgiving love.

A Song of Ascents.

⁶ For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: ⁷ because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: ⁸ and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies ^[a]through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ The sisters therefore sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. ⁶ When therefore he heard that he was sick, he abode at that time two days in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after this he saith to the disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. ⁸ The disciples say unto him, Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone thee; and goest thou thither again? ⁹ Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him. ¹¹ These things spake he: and after this he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. ¹² The disciples therefore said unto him, Lord, if he is fallen asleep, he will ^[a]recover. ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death: but they thought that he spake of taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus therefore said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. ¹⁶ Thomas therefore, who is called ^[b]Didymus, said unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

¹⁷ So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off; ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary still sat in the house. ²¹ Martha therefore said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. ²² And even now I know that, whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will give thee. ²³ Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. ²⁴ Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. ²⁵ Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; ²⁶ and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this? ²⁷ She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I have believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, even he that cometh into the world. ²⁸ And when she had said this, she went away, and called Mary ^[c]her sister secretly, saying, The Teacher is here, and calleth thee. ²⁹ And she, when she heard it, arose quickly, and went unto him. ³⁰ (Now Jesus was not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him.) ³¹ The Jews then who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that she was going unto the tomb to ^[d]weep there. ³² Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was, and saw him, fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. ³³ When Jesus therefore saw her ^[e]weeping, and the Jews also ^[f]weeping who came with her, he ^[g]groaned in the spirit, and ^[h]was troubled, ³⁴ and said, Where have ye laid him? They say unto him, Lord, come and see. ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ The Jews therefore said, Behold how he loved him! ³⁷ But some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him that was blind, have caused that this man also should not die? ³⁸ Jesus therefore again ^[i]groaning in himself cometh to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay ^[j]against it. ³⁹ Jesus saith, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time ^[k]the body decayeth; for he hath been dead four days. ⁴⁰ Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God? ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. ⁴² And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the multitude that standeth around I said it, that they may believe that thou didst send me. ⁴³ And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. ⁴⁴ He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with ^[l]grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

⁴⁵ Many therefore of the Jews, who came to Mary and beheld ^[m]that which he did, believed on him.