Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁸ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you go to Egypt, I will be very angry with you. I punished the people of Jerusalem because I was very angry with them. I will be as angry as that with you, if you go to Egypt. Other people will think that you are disgusting. They will insult you. They will use your name as a curse, because God has cursed you. You will never see this land of Judah again.”

¹⁹ Listen to me, you people who still remain in Judah. The Lord has said to you, “Do not go to Egypt.” You must understand that I am now warning you. ²⁰ You made a terrible mistake when you asked me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You told me, “Tell us everything that the Lord our God says, and we will do it.” ²¹ Today I have told you what he said. But you still do not want to obey the Lord. You will not do what he sent me to tell you. ²² So now I tell you this: When you go to the place where you want to live, war, famine or disease will kill you.’

Jesus sends out his 12 apostles

⁵ Jesus sent out these 12 disciples. Before they left, he said to them, ‘Do not go to any place where the people are Gentiles. And do not go to towns where only Samaritans live.^{[a] 6} Instead, you must go to the people of Israel. They are like lost sheep with nobody to take care of them. ⁷ While you travel, you must tell people about the kingdom of heaven. You must tell them that it has now become near. ⁸ Make sick people well again. Cause dead people to become alive again. If people have a bad disease of the skin, make them well again. Send bad spirits out of people to leave them. God has been very kind to you, so you should be kind to other people. When you help people, do not ask them for money. ⁹ Do not take any money in your purses. ¹⁰ Do not take a bag with you, or extra clothes. Do not take extra shoes or a stick. You are working to help people. So people should give you what you need to live.

¹¹ When you arrive in a town or a village, look for a good person there. Continue to stay in that person's house until you leave there. ¹² When you go into the house, say to the people there, “We pray that you will be well.” ¹³ If the people of that house accept you, then everyone in the house will be well. But if they do not accept you, then take back your kind words. ¹⁴ Sometimes you will go to some house or town and the people will not accept you there. They will not listen to your message. Then you should leave. Clean the dirt of that place off your feet. ¹⁵ I tell you this: One day God will punish people like that. God will punish them even more than the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah long ago.’^[b]

¹⁶ Jesus then said to his disciples, ‘Listen well. I am sending you to people who will want to kill you. You will be like sheep among wild animals. You must watch carefully, like snakes do. But you must also be good and kind like doves.

¹⁷ Be careful! People will be against you. They will take you to stand in front of their leaders. They will punish you with whips in their meeting places. ¹⁸ They will take you to stand in front of kings and rulers. All this will happen because you are my disciples. You will tell all these important people and also the Gentiles the good news about me. ¹⁹ When they take you to stand in front of their leaders, do not be afraid. Do not worry about what you should say or how you should say it. At that time, God will give you the right words to speak. ²⁰ You will not be speaking your own words. The Holy Spirit of your Father God will give you his own words to say.

²¹ At that time, a man will let people kill his own brother. A father will let people kill his own child. Children will be against their parents. They will even ask people to kill their parents. ²² All people will hate you because you are my disciples. But God will save the person who remains strong until the end. ²³ If people in any town hurt you because of me, you should leave that town immediately. Go to another town. I tell you this: You will not have enough time to speak your message in all the towns of Israel. I, the Son of Man, will return before that can happen.