Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

ז Zayin

ח Cheth

ט Teth

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ² Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.^{(A) 3} Because of the Lord’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.^(B)

⁴ In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵ The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food. ⁷ Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.^{(C) 8} The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered. ⁹ The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

¹⁰ At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders. ¹¹ Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody^[a] until his dying day.^(D)

The Letter to Smyrna

⁸ “Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna: Thus says the First and the Last,^(A) the one who was dead and came to life: ⁹ I know your^[a] affliction and poverty, but you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.^{(B) 10} Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil^(C) is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days.^(D) Be faithful to the point of death,^(E) and I will give you the crown^[b] of life.^(F)

¹¹ “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.^(G)