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 Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought back to life, “Take your family and move to some other country, for the Lord has called down a famine on Israel that will last for seven years.”

² So the woman took her family and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. ³ After the famine ended, she returned to the land of Israel and went to see the king about getting back her house and land. ⁴ Just as she came in, the king was talking with Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, and saying, “Tell me some stories of the great things Elisha has done.” ⁵ And Gehazi was telling the king about the time when Elisha brought a little boy back to life. At that very moment, the mother of the boy walked in!

“Oh, sir!” Gehazi exclaimed. “Here is the woman now, and this is her son—the very one Elisha brought back to life!”

⁶ “Is this true?” the king asked her. And she told him that it was. So he directed one of his officials to see to it that everything she had owned was restored to her, plus the value of any crops that had been harvested during her absence.

³⁶ Several days later Paul suggested to Barnabas that they return again to Turkey and visit each city where they had preached before,^[a] to see how the new converts were getting along. ³⁷ Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. ³⁸ But Paul didn’t like that idea at all, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia. ³⁹ Their disagreement over this was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus, ^40-41 while Paul chose Silas and, with the blessing of the believers, left for Syria and Cilicia to encourage the churches there.