Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for Restoration

A song of ascents.^[a]

The Nation Confesses

9 On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites^[a] gathered in fasting, in sackcloths, and with soil on them. ² Those of the seed of Israel separated themselves from all of the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.^{[b] 3} They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law^[c] of Yahweh their God for a fourth part of the day, and for a fourth they were confessing and worshiping Yahweh their God. ⁴ Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani stood on the platform of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to Yahweh their God. ⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, “Stand up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting until everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name that is being exalted above all blessing and praise!

⁶ “You alone are Yahweh. You alone have made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all of their army, the earth and all that is in it, the waters and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the army of the heavens worship you. ⁷ You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite—to give it to his seed. And you have kept your word because you are righteous.

The Selection of the Twelve Apostles

¹² Now it happened that in these days he went away to the mountain to pray, and was spending the whole night in prayer to God. ¹³ And when day came, he summoned his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he also named apostles: ¹⁴ Simon (whom he also named Peter) and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, ¹⁵ and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶ and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Sermon on the Plain: The Beatitudes

¹⁷ And he came down with them and^[a] stood on a level place, and a large crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all of Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast district of Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled by unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And the whole crowd was seeking to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all.