Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² Zedekiah^[a] had done evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³ Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, ⁴ and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it. ⁵ The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of^[b] King Zedekiah. ⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ The wall of^[c] the city was broken through, and all the soldiers fled, leaving the city at night through the gate between the two walls next to the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.^[d]

⁸ The Chaldean army went after the king, overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him. ⁹ They captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where the king of Babylon^[e] passed judgment on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also killed all the Judean officials^[f] at Riblah. ¹¹ He blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. Then the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until he died.

The Letter to the Church in Smyrna

⁸ “To the messenger^[a] of the church in Smyrna, write:

‘The first and the last, who was dead and became alive, says this:

⁹ ‘I know your suffering and your poverty—though you are rich—and the slander committed by those who claim to be Jews but are not. They are the synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Don’t be afraid of what you are going to suffer. Look! The Devil is going to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested. For ten days you will undergo suffering. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the victor’s crown of life.

¹¹ ‘Let everyone^[b] listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes^[c] will never be hurt by the second death.’”