Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Jeremiah Purchases a Field

32 This is^[a] the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of^[b] Zedekiah, king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of the reign of^[c] Nebuchadnezzar. ² The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard at the palace of the king of Judah ³ where Zedekiah had confined him. Zedekiah had said,^[d] “Why did you prophesy and say these things? You said,^[e] ‘This is what the Lord says: “I’m about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

⁶ Jeremiah replied, “This message from the Lord came to me: ⁷ ‘Look, Hanamel, your cousin,^[a] is coming to you and will say, “Buy my field in Anathoth for yourself, because the right of redemption to buy it belongs to you.”’

⁸ “Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard just as the Lord had said, and he told me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin because you have the right to possess it, and the right to redeem it belongs to you. Buy it for yourself.’ So I knew that this was a message from the Lord.

⁹ “Then I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out the silver for him—seventeen shekels^[b] of silver. ¹⁰ I signed the deed and sealed it. I called in witnesses and used scales to weigh out the silver. ¹¹ Then I took the deed of purchase—both the sealed one^[c] with the terms and conditions and the open one^[d]— ¹² and I gave the deed of purchase to Neriah’s son Baruch, the grandson of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans sitting in the courtyard of the guard. ¹³ In their presence, I instructed Baruch as follows: ¹⁴ ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Take these deeds—both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed—and put them in a clay pot so they’ll last for a long time. ¹⁵ For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’”’”

A Davidic Psalm^[a]

God is My Refuge

The Lord Speaks

⁶ Of course, godliness with contentment does bring a great profit.

⁹ But people who want to get rich keep toppling into temptation and are trapped by many stupid and harmful desires that plunge them into destruction and ruin. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, in their eagerness to get rich, have wandered away from the faith and caused^[a] themselves a lot of pain.

Advice for Timothy

¹³ Since you are^[c] in the presence of God, who gives life to everything, and in the presence of the Messiah^[d] Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, I solemnly charge you ¹⁴ to keep these commands stainlessly and blamelessly until the appearance of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.^{[e] 15} At the right time, he will make him known.

Advice for the Wealthy

¹⁷ Tell those who are rich in this age not to be arrogant and not to place their confidence in anything as uncertain as riches. Instead, let them place their confidence^[g] in God, who lavishly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good actions, to be generous, and to share. ¹⁹ By doing this they store up a treasure for themselves that is a good foundation for the future, so that they can keep their hold on the life that is real.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “Once there was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and live in great luxury every day. ²⁰ A beggar named Lazarus, who was covered with sores, was brought to his gate. ²¹ He was always trying to satisfy his hunger with what fell^[a] from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs used to come and lick his sores.

²² “One day, the beggar died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In the afterlife,^[b] where he was in constant torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool off my tongue, because I am suffering in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham said, ‘My child, remember that during your lifetime you received blessings,^[c] while Lazarus received hardships.^[d] But now he is being comforted here, while you suffer. ²⁶ Besides all this, a wide chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross from this side to you cannot do so, nor can they cross from your side to us.’

²⁷ “The rich man^[e] said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus^[f] to my father’s house— ²⁸ because I have five brothers—to warn them, so that they won’t end up in this place of torture, too.’

²⁹ “Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. They should listen to them!’

³⁰ “But the rich man^[g] replied, ‘No, father Abraham! But if someone from the dead went to them, they would repent.’

³¹ “Then Abraham^[h] told him, ‘If your brothers^[i] do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.’”