Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
12 while you, Lord, are a famous King forever. Your fame will endure to every generation.
13 I know that you will come and have mercy on Jerusalem—and now is the time to pity her—the time you promised help. 14 For your people love every stone in her walls and feel sympathy for every grain of dust in her streets. 15 Now let the nations and their rulers tremble before the Lord, before his glory. 16 For Jehovah will rebuild Jerusalem! He will appear in his glory!
17 He will listen to the prayers of the destitute, for he is never too busy to heed their requests. 18 I am recording this so that future generations will also praise the Lord for all that he has done. And a people that shall be created shall praise the Lord. 19 Tell them that God looked down from his temple in heaven 20 and heard the groans of his people in slavery—they were children of death—and released them, 21-22 so that multitudes would stream to the Temple in Jerusalem to praise him, and his praises were sung throughout the city; and many rulers throughout the earth came to worship him.
23 He has cut me down in middle life, shortening my days. 24 But I cried to him, “O God, you live forever and forever! Don’t let me die halfway through my years! 25 In ages past you laid the foundations of the earth and made the heavens with your hands! 26 They shall perish, but you go on forever. They will grow old like worn-out clothing, and you will change them like a man putting on a new shirt and throwing away the old one! 27 But you yourself never grow old. You are forever, and your years never end.
28 “But our families will continue; generation after generation will be preserved by your protection.”
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman of the city invited him in to eat, and afterwards, whenever he passed that way, he stopped for dinner.
9 She said to her husband, “I’m sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy prophet. 10 Let’s make a little room for him on the roof; we can put in a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, and he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
11-12 Once when he was resting in the room he said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman I want to speak to her.”
When she came, 13 he said to Gehazi, “Tell her that we appreciate her kindness to us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the general of the army?”
“No,” she replied, “I am perfectly content.”
14 “What can we do for her?” he asked Gehazi afterwards.
He suggested, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”
15-16 “Call her back again,” Elisha told him.
When she returned, he talked to her as she stood in the doorway. “Next year at about this time you shall have a son!”
“O man of God,” she exclaimed, “don’t lie to me like that!”
17 But it was true; the woman soon conceived and had a baby boy the following year, just as Elisha had predicted.
32 When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there upon the prophet’s bed. 33 He went in and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he lay upon the child’s body, placing his mouth upon the child’s mouth, and his eyes upon the child’s eyes, and his hands upon the child’s hands. And the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35 Then the prophet went down and walked back and forth in the house a few times; returning upstairs, he stretched himself again upon the child. This time the little boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36 Then the prophet summoned Gehazi. “Call her!” he said. And when she came in, he said, “Here’s your son!”
37 She fell to the floor at his feet and then picked up her son and went out.
14 At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went together to the synagogue and preached with such power that many—both Jews and Gentiles—believed.
2 But the Jews who spurned God’s message stirred up distrust among the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas, saying all sorts of evil things about them. 3 Nevertheless, they stayed there a long time, preaching boldly, and the Lord proved their message was from him by giving them power to do great miracles. 4 But the people of the city were divided in their opinion about them. Some agreed with the Jewish leaders, and some backed the apostles.
5-6 When Paul and Barnabas learned of a plot to incite a mob of Gentiles, Jews, and Jewish leaders to attack and stone them, they fled for their lives, going to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding area, 7 and preaching the Good News there.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.