Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the director: With flutes.[a] A song of David.
5 Lord, listen to me
and understand what I am trying to say.
2 My God and King,
listen to my prayer.
3 Every morning, Lord, I lay my gifts before you
and look to you for help.
And every morning you hear my prayers.
4 God, you don’t want evil people near you.
They cannot stay in your presence.[b]
5 Fools[c] cannot come near you.
You hate those who do evil.
6 You destroy those who tell lies.
Lord, you hate those who make secret plans to hurt others.
7 But by your great mercy, I can enter your house.
I can worship in your holy Temple with fear and respect for you.
8 Lord, show me your right way of living,
and make it easy for me to follow.
People are looking for my weaknesses,
so show me how you want me to live.
A Prophet Speaks Against Ahab
35 One of the prophets told another prophet, “Hit me!” He said that because the Lord had commanded it. But the other prophet refused to hit him. 36 So the first prophet said, “You did not obey the Lord’s command. So a lion will kill you when you leave this place.” When the second prophet left, a lion killed him.
37 The first prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!”
This man hit him and hurt the prophet. 38 So the prophet wrapped his face with a cloth. This way no one could see who he was. The prophet went and waited for the king by the road. 39 The king came by and the prophet said to him, “I went to fight in the battle. One of our men brought an enemy soldier to me. The man said, ‘Guard this man. If he runs away, you will have to give your life in his place or you will have to pay a fine of 75 pounds[a] of silver.’ 40 While I was busy doing other things, the man ran away.”
The king of Israel answered, “You admitted that you are guilty, so you know the answer. You must do what the man said.”
41 Then the prophet quickly took the cloth from his face, and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. 42 Then the prophet said to the king, “The Lord says to you, ‘You set free the man I said should die. So you will take his place—you and your people will die!’”
43 Then the king went back home to Samaria. He was worried and upset.
Jesus Heals a Crippled Man(A)
17 One day Jesus was teaching the people. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there too. They had come from every town in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The Lord was giving Jesus the power to heal people. 18 There was a man who was paralyzed, and some other men were carrying him on a mat. They tried to bring him and put him down before Jesus. 19 But there were so many people that they could not find a way to Jesus. So they went up on the roof and lowered the crippled man down through a hole in the ceiling. They lowered the mat into the room so that the crippled man was lying before Jesus. 20 Jesus saw how much faith they had and said to the sick man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
21 The Jewish teachers of the law and the Pharisees thought to themselves, “Who is this man who dares to say such things? What an insult to God! No one but God can forgive sins.”
22 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you have these questions in your minds? 23-24 The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There’s no proof that it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up and walk’? Then you will be able to see that I really have this power.” So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, stand up! Take your mat and go home!”
25 The man immediately stood up in front of everyone. He picked up his mat and walked home, praising God. 26 Everyone was completely amazed and began to praise God. They were filled with great respect for God’s power. They said, “Today we saw amazing things!”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International