Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 God is the one who saves me.
I trust him. I am not afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, gives me strength and makes me sing.
He has saved me.”
3 You will receive your salvation with joy.
You will take it as you would draw water from a well.
4 At that time you will say,
“Praise the Lord, and worship him.
Tell everyone what he has done.
Tell them how great he is.
5 Sing praise to the Lord, because he has done great things.
Let all the world know what he has done.
6 Shout and sing for joy, you people of Jerusalem.
The Holy One of Israel does great things before your eyes.”
8 I, the Lord God, am watching the sinful kingdom Israel.
I will destroy Israel
from the earth’s surface.
But I will not completely destroy
Jacob’s descendants,” says the Lord.
9 “I am giving the command
to scatter the nation of Israel among all nations.
It will be like someone sifting flour.
A person shakes flour through a sifter.
The good flour falls through, but not the bad clumps.
10 Sinners among my people
will die by the sword.
All of them say,
‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’
The Lord Promises to Restore Israel
11 “The kingdom of David is like a fallen tent.
But in that day I will set it up again
and mend its broken places.
I will rebuild its ruins.
I will rebuild it as it was before.
12 Then Israel will take over what is left of Edom
and the other nations that belong to me,”
says the Lord.
And he will make it happen.
13 The Lord says, “The time is coming when there will be plenty of food.
A person will still be harvesting his crops
when it’s time to plow again.
A person will still be taking the juice from his grapes
when it’s time to plant again.
Sweet wine will drip from the mountains.
And it will pour from the hills.
14 I will bring my people Israel back from captivity.
They will build the ruined cities again.
And they will live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them.
They will plant gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant my people on their land.
And they will not be pulled out again
from the land which I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
The Birth of John
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to give birth, she had a boy. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard how good the Lord was to her, and they rejoiced.
59 When the baby was eight days old, they came to circumcise him. They wanted to name him Zechariah because this was his father’s name. 60 But his mother said, “No! He will be named John.”
61 The people said to Elizabeth, “But no one in your family has this name!” 62 Then they made signs to his father, “What would you like to name him?”
63 Zechariah asked for something to write on. Then he wrote, “His name is John.” Everyone was surprised. 64 Then Zechariah could talk again. He began to praise God. 65 And all their neighbors became alarmed. In all the mountains of Judea people continued talking about all these things. 66 The people who heard about these things wondered about them. They thought, “What will this child be?” They said this because the Lord was with him.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.