Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote.

Tell the music leader, ‘Use harps when you sing this song.’

David prays for health^[a]

¹⁵ Then Naaman and all his servants went back to see Elisha, the man of God. Naaman stood in front of him and he said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in the whole world except the one in Israel. Please accept a gift from me, your servant.’ ¹⁶ But Elisha replied, ‘I serve the Lord. I promise you, as surely as he lives, I will not accept a gift from you.’ Naaman asked him many times to accept a gift but Elisha refused.

¹⁷ So Naaman said, ‘So, you will not accept my gift. But please agree to let me take home some soil from here. I will take as much soil as two mules can carry. Then I will never again make any sacrifices or burnt offerings to any other god. I will only worship the Lord. ¹⁸ But I pray that the Lord will forgive me, your servant, when I do this one thing: My master, the king of Syria, often goes into the temple of our god, Rimmon. When he bends down low to worship Rimmon, he takes hold of my arm. So I also have to bend down low with him. I ask the Lord to forgive me when I do that.’

¹⁹ Elisha said to Naaman, ‘Go home with peace in your mind.’ Then Naaman started on his way home.

Bad troubles happen in Ephesus

²¹ After these things happened, Paul decided that he should go to Jerusalem. But first he wanted to visit the believers in Macedonia and Greece. He said, ‘After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also go to Rome.’ ²² At that time, Timothy and Erastus were helping Paul with his work. Paul sent them to Macedonia while he stayed longer in Asia region.

²³ Soon after that, there was bad trouble in Ephesus. Some people began to speak strongly against the Way of the Lord Jesus. ²⁴ In Ephesus there was a man called Demetrius. He used silver to make beautiful things. He made models that looked like the temple of Artemis.^[a] He paid a lot of money to people who did this work for him. ²⁵ So he told all his workers to meet with him. He also asked other workers to come, who did the same kind of work. He said to all these men, ‘Men, you know that our work has caused us to become rich. ²⁶ Also, you can see what this man Paul is doing. You have heard his message. Many people here in Ephesus, and in nearly all the places in Asia region, believe what he says. Paul teaches people this: “Anything that men have made is not really a god.” ²⁷ If people continue to believe Paul's message, it will be very bad for us. People will say bad things against our work. The house of our god Artemis will not be important any more. People will even think that Artemis herself is not a great god. As it is now, people in all of Asia region and everywhere else worship her. We do not want that to change.’