Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 120
A Man of Peace
Heading
A song of the ascents.[a]
A Man of Peace
1 In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
2 Lord, save my life from lying lips.
Save me from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he give to you?
What more will he add to you, you deceitful tongue?
4 A warrior’s sharpened arrows with hot coals of the broom tree.
5 Woe to me that I am an alien in Meshek,
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
6 For too long my soul[b] has dwelt with those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
Zedekiah Son of Josiah, the Last King of Judah
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that Jehoiakim had done. 20 Surely it was because of the Lord’s wrath that all this fell upon Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
The Final Siege of Jerusalem
25 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came up against Jerusalem. He laid siege to it and built a rampart around it. 2 The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 By the ninth day of the fourth month,[a] famine gripped the city, and the people of the land had no bread.
4 Then the city wall was breached, and all the soldiers fled toward the Arabah through the gate that was between the two walls near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans[b] were surrounding the city. 5 But the Chaldean army pursued the king. They caught him in the Arabah near Jericho. His whole army was scattered away from him. 6 So they seized the king. They brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah, and a sentence was pronounced on him. 7 They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and then Zedekiah was blinded. They bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
Jerusalem Destroyed and the People Deported
8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,[c] an officer of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned the Lord’s house and the king’s palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned down every large building. 10 The whole Chaldean army, which was under the captain of the guard, tore down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, exiled the rest of the people who remained in the city along with those who had previously surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowds.[d] 12 But the captain of the guard left the poorest people of the land to tend the vineyards and farms.
13 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars which were in the House of the Lord and the carts and the bronze sea which was in the House of the Lord, and they took the bronze to Babylon. 14 They took the pots, shovels, snuffers,[e] and bowls and all the bronze utensils with which they served. 15 The captain of the guard took the fire pans and the bowls—whatever was made of pure gold and pure silver. 16 The bronze from all these articles—the two pillars, the sea, and the carts which Solomon had made for the House of the Lord—could not be weighed. 17 The height of one pillar was twenty-seven feet, and the capital on it was bronze. The height of the capital was four and a half feet. Latticework and pomegranates went all around the capital. All this was bronze, and the other pillar with its latticework was the same.
18 The captain of the guard took Seriah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second-ranking priest and three doorkeepers. 19 From the city, he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers and five of the king’s close advisors, who were found in the city, as well as the secretary, the army commander who drafted the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land, who were found in the city. 20 Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them with him to the king of Babylon in Riblah. 21 The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from her country.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead also is going to come by a man. 22 For as in Adam they all die, so also in Christ they all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ as the firstfruits and then Christ’s people, at his coming. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has done away with every other ruler and every other authority and power. 25 For he must reign “until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”[a] 26 Death is the last enemy to be done away with. 27 Certainly, “he has put all things in subjection under his feet.”[b] Now when it says that all things have been put in subjection, obviously that does not include the one who subjected all things to him. 28 But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected[c] to the one who subjected all things to him, in order that God may be all in all.
29 Otherwise, what will those people do who get baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why do they even get baptized for them? 30 Why do we live in danger every hour? 31 Day by day I face death, as surely as I boast about you, brothers,[d] in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild animals in Ephesus with human motives, what good did it do me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”[e] 33 Do not be deceived! “Keeping bad company corrupts good morals.”[f] 34 Use sober judgment, as is right, and do not sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.