Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
מ Mem
97 How I love Your instruction!(A)
It is my meditation all day long.(B)
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,(C)
for they are always with me.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers
because Your decrees are my meditation.(D)
100 I understand more than the elders(E)
because I obey Your precepts.(F)
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path(G)
to follow Your word.
102 I have not turned from Your judgments,(H)
for You Yourself have instructed me.
103 How sweet Your word is(I) to my taste—
sweeter than honey in my mouth.
104 I gain understanding from Your precepts;(J)
therefore I hate every false way.(K)
Jeremiah’s Speech in the Temple
26 At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim(A) son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all Judah’s cities that are coming to worship there. Do not hold back a word.(B) 3 Perhaps they will listen and return—each from his evil way of life—so that I might relent(C) concerning the disaster that I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds. 4 You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to Me by living according to My instruction that I set before you(D) 5 and by listening to the words of My servants the prophets(E) I have been sending you time and time again,[a] though you did not listen, 6 I will make this temple like Shiloh.(F) I will make this city an object of cursing for all the nations of the earth.”
Jeremiah Seized
7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of the Lord. 8 He finished the address the Lord had commanded him to deliver to all the people. Then the priests, the prophets, and all the people took hold of him, yelling, “You must surely die! 9 How dare you prophesy in the name of Yahweh, ‘This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin’!” Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah at the Lord’s temple.
10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they went from the king’s palace to the Lord’s temple and sat at the entrance of the New Gate.[b](G) 11 Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man deserves the death sentence because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”(H)
Jeremiah’s Defense
12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy all the words that you have heard against this temple and city. 13 So now, correct your ways and deeds(I) and obey the voice of the Lord your God so that He might relent concerning the disaster that He warned about. 14 As for me, here I am in your hands; do to me what you think is good and right. 15 But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood(J) on yourselves, on this city, and on its residents, for it is certain the Lord has sent me to speak all these things directly to you.”
The Areopagus Address
22 Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed:
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it(A)—He is Lord of heaven and earth(B) and does not live in shrines made by hands.(C) 25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything,(D) since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.(E) 26 From one man[a] He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.(F) 27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.(G) 28 For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’[b](H) 29 Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.(I)
30 “Therefore, having overlooked(J) the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”(K)
32 When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him. But others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” 33 Then Paul left their presence. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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