Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 135

Temple vision

8 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and Judah’s elders were sitting with me, when the Lord God’s power overcame me. ² I looked, and there was a form that looked like fire. Below what looked like his waist was fire, but above his waist it looked like gold, like gleaming amber. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand and picked me up by the hair of my head. A wind lifted me up between earth and heaven, and in a divine vision it brought me to Jerusalem, to the north-facing entrance of the gate to the inner court. That was where the pedestal was for the outrageous image that incites outrage. ⁴ There I saw the glory of Israel’s God, exactly like what I had seen in the valley. ⁵ He said to me: Human one, look toward the north. So I looked north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this outrageous image in the entrance. ⁶ He said to me: Human one, do you see what they are doing, the terribly detestable practices that the house of Israel is doing here that drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these.

⁷ Then he brought me to the court entrance. When I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me: Human one, dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and I discovered a doorway. ⁹ And he said to me: Go in and see what wicked and detestable things they are doing in there. ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and I saw every form of loathsome beasts and creeping things and all the idols of the house of Israel engraved on the walls all around. ¹¹ The seventy elders of the house of Israel were standing in front of them, and all of them were holding censers in their hands. Jaazaniah, Shaphan’s son, was standing right there with them, and the scent of the incense cloud rose up. ¹² He said to me: Human one, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every one of them in their rooms full of sculptured images? They say, “The Lord doesn’t see us; the Lord has abandoned the land.” ¹³ He said to me: You will see them performing even more detestable practices. ¹⁴ He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the temple, where women were sitting and performing the Tammuz lament.

¹⁵ He said to me: Human one, do you see? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these. ¹⁶ He brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s temple. There, at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were twenty-five men facing toward the east with their backs to the Lord’s temple. They were bowing to the sun in the east. ¹⁷ He said to me: Do you see, human one? Isn’t it enough that the house of Judah has observed here all these detestable things? They have filled the land with violence, and they continue to provoke my fury. Look at them! They even put the branch to their noses! ¹⁸ I will certainly respond with wrath. I won’t spare or pity anyone. Even though they call out loudly to me in my hearing, I won’t listen to them.

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

²⁶ An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take^[a] the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) ²⁸ He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.”

³⁰ Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?”

³¹ The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. ³² This was the passage of scripture he was reading:

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went down the road, they came to some water.

The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?”^{[c] 38} He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip found himself in Azotus. He traveled through that area, preaching the good news in all the cities until he reached Caesarea.