Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

29 ^1-2 After Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the court officials, the tribal officers, and craftsmen had been deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah wrote them a letter from Jerusalem, addressing it to the Jewish elders, priests, prophets, and to all the people.

⁴ The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:

⁵ Build homes and plan to stay; plant vineyards, for you will be there many years. ⁶ Marry and have children, and then find mates for them and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Don’t dwindle away! ⁷ And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray for her, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.

66 Sing to the Lord, all the earth! ² Sing of his glorious name! Tell the world how wonderful he is.

³ How awe-inspiring are your deeds, O God! How great your power! No wonder your enemies surrender! ⁴ All the earth shall worship you and sing of your glories. ⁵ Come, see the glorious things God has done. What marvelous miracles happen to his people! ⁶ He made a dry road through the sea for them. They went across on foot. What excitement and joy there was that day!

⁷ Because of his great power he rules forever. He watches every movement of the nations. O rebel lands, he will deflate your pride.

⁸ Let everyone bless God and sing his praises; ⁹ for he holds our lives in his hands, and he holds our feet to the path. ¹⁰ You have purified us with fire,^[a] O Lord, like silver in a crucible. ¹¹ You captured us in your net and laid great burdens on our backs. ¹² You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies.^[b] We went through fire and flood. But in the end, you brought us into wealth and great abundance.

⁸ Don’t ever forget the wonderful fact that Jesus Christ was a man, born into King David’s family; and that he was God, as shown by the fact that he rose again from the dead. ⁹ It is because I have preached these great truths that I am in trouble here and have been put in jail like a criminal. But the Word of God is not chained, even though I am. ¹⁰ I am more than willing to suffer if that will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen.

¹¹ I am comforted by this truth, that when we suffer and die for Christ it only means that we will begin living with him in heaven. ¹² And if we think that our present service for him is hard, just remember that some day we are going to sit with him and rule with him. But if we give up when we suffer, and turn against Christ, then he must turn against us. ¹³ Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, he remains faithful to us and will help us, for he cannot disown us who are part of himself, and he will always carry out his promises to us.

¹⁴ Remind your people of these great facts, and command them in the name of the Lord not to argue over unimportant things. Such arguments are confusing and useless and even harmful. ¹⁵ Work hard so God can say to you, “Well done.” Be a good workman, one who does not need to be ashamed when God examines your work. Know what his Word says and means.

¹¹ As they continued onward toward Jerusalem, they reached the border between Galilee and Samaria, ¹² and as they entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, ¹³ crying out, “Jesus, sir, have mercy on us!”

¹⁴ He looked at them and said, “Go to the Jewish priest and show him that you are healed!” And as they were going, their leprosy disappeared.

¹⁵ One of them came back to Jesus, shouting, “Glory to God, I’m healed!” ¹⁶ He fell flat on the ground in front of Jesus, face downward in the dust, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a despised^[a] Samaritan.

¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?”

¹⁹ And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”