Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God the Rock of Salvation
71 In (A)You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 (B)Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
(C)Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 (D)Be my [a]strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the (E)commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
4 (F)Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For You are (G)my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
6 (H)By You I have been [b]upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
20 (A)For what purpose to Me
Comes frankincense (B)from Sheba,
And (C)sweet cane from a far country?
(D)Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
Nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”
21 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people,
And the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them.
The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”
22 Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, a people comes from the (E)north country,
And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 They will lay hold on bow and spear;
They are cruel and have no mercy;
Their voice (F)roars like the sea;
And they ride on horses,
As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”
24 We have heard the report of it;
Our hands grow feeble.
(G)Anguish has taken hold of us,
Pain as of a woman in [a]labor.
25 Do not go out into the field,
Nor walk by the way.
Because of the sword of the enemy,
Fear is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people,
(H)Dress in sackcloth
(I)And roll about in ashes!
(J)Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;
For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.
27 “I have set you as an assayer and (K)a fortress among My people,
That you may know and test their way.
28 (L)They are all stubborn rebels, (M)walking as slanderers.
They are (N)bronze and iron,
They are all corrupters;
29 The bellows blow fiercely,
The lead is consumed by the fire;
The smelter refines in vain,
For the wicked are not drawn off.
30 People will call them (O)rejected silver,
Because the Lord has rejected them.”
Preaching Christ at Thessalonica
17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to (A)Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, (B)went in to them, and for three Sabbaths (C)reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating (D)that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 (E)And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and (F)Silas.
Assault on Jason’s House
5 But the Jews [a]who were not persuaded, [b]becoming (G)envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of (H)Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, (I)“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has [c]harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, (J)saying there is another king—Jesus.” 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.