Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love them. I think about them all day long. ⁹⁸ They make me wiser than my enemies because they are my constant guide. ⁹⁹ Yes, wiser than my teachers, for I am ever thinking of your rules. ¹⁰⁰ They make me even wiser than the aged.

¹⁰¹ I have refused to walk the paths of evil, for I will remain obedient to your Word. ^102-103 No, I haven’t turned away from what you taught me; your words are sweeter than honey. ¹⁰⁴ And since only your rules can give me wisdom and understanding, no wonder I hate every false teaching.

26 This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the first year of the reign of Jehoiakim (son of Josiah), king of Judah:

² Stand out in front of the Temple of the Lord and make an announcement to all the people who have come there to worship from many parts of Judah. Give them the entire message; don’t leave out one word of all I have for them to hear. ³ For perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways, and then I can withhold all the punishment I am ready to pour out upon them because of their evil deeds. ⁴ Tell them the Lord says: If you will not listen to me and obey the laws I have given you, ⁵ and if you will not listen to my servants, the prophets—for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them— ⁶ then I will destroy this Temple as I destroyed the Tabernacle at Shiloh, and I will make Jerusalem a curse word in every nation of the earth.

^7-8 When Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lord had told him to, the priests and false prophets and all the people in the Temple mobbed him, shouting, “Kill him! Kill him! ⁹ What right do you have to say the Lord will destroy this Temple like the one at Shiloh?” they yelled. “What do you mean—Jerusalem destroyed and not one survivor?”

¹⁰ When the high officials of Judah heard what was going on, they rushed over from the palace and sat down at the door of the Temple to hold court. ¹¹ Then the priests and the false prophets presented their accusations to the officials and the people. “This man should die!” they said. “You have heard with your own ears what a traitor he is, for he has prophesied against this city.”

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke in his defense. “The Lord sent me,” he said, “to prophesy against this Temple and this city. He gave me every word of all that I have spoken. ¹³ But if you stop your sinning and begin obeying the Lord your God, he will cancel all the punishment he has announced against you. ¹⁴ As for me, I am helpless and in your power—do with me as you think best. ¹⁵ But there is one thing sure, if you kill me, you will be killing an innocent man, and the responsibility will lie upon you and upon this city and upon every person living in it; for it is absolutely true that the Lord sent me to speak every word that you have heard from me.”

²² So Paul, standing before them at the Mars Hill forum, addressed them as follows:

“Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, ²³ for as I was out walking I saw your many altars, and one of them had this inscription on it—‘To the Unknown God.’ You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him.

²⁴ “He made the world and everything in it, and since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples; ²⁵ and human hands can’t minister to his needs—for he has no needs! He himself gives life and breath to everything, and satisfies every need there is. ²⁶ He created all the people of the world from one man, Adam,^[a] and scattered the nations across the face of the earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and when. He determined their boundaries.

²⁷ “His purpose in all of this is that they should seek after God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ For in him we live and move and are! As one of your own poets says it, ‘We are the sons of God.’ ²⁹ If this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol made by men from gold or silver or chipped from stone. ³⁰ God tolerated man’s past ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone to put away idols and worship only him. ³¹ For he has set a day for justly judging the world by the man he has appointed, and has pointed him out by bringing him back to life again.”

³² When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of a person who had been dead, some laughed, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” ³³ That ended Paul’s discussion with them, ³⁴ but a few joined him and became believers. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the City Council, and a woman named Damaris, and others.