Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 96

Praise to God Who Comes in Judgment

Elijah’s Message to Ahab

18 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought,^[a] saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.”^{(A) 2} So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. ³ Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah revered the Lord greatly; ⁴ when Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water.)^{(B) 5} Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the wadis; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals.” ⁶ So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.

⁷ As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face, and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?”^{(C) 8} He answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.” ⁹ And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab to kill me? ¹⁰ As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you, and when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would require an oath of the kingdom or nation that they had not found you.^{(D) 11} But now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.’ ¹² As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth.^{(E) 13} Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave and provided them with bread and water?^{(F) 14} Yet now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here’; he will surely kill me.” ¹⁵ Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.”^{(G) 16} So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”^{(H) 18} He answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.^{(I) 19} Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”^(J)

The Man with an Unclean Spirit

³¹ He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath.^{(A) 32} They were astounded at his teaching because he spoke with authority.^{(B) 33} In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Leave us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”^{(C) 35} But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” Then the demon, throwing the man down before them, came out of him without doing him any harm.^{(D) 36} They were all astounded and kept saying to one another, “What kind of word is this, that with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out?”^{(E) 37} And news about him began to reach every place in the region.^(F)