Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song for going up to the Temple.
129 All my life enemies have attacked me.
Say it again, Israel.
2 All my life enemies have attacked me,
but they have never defeated me.
3 They beat me until I had deep cuts.
My back looked like a freshly plowed field.
4 But the Lord does what is right;
he cut the ropes and set me free from those wicked people.
5 May those who hate Zion be put to shame.
May they be stopped and chased away.
6 They will be like grass on a flat roof
that dies before it has time to grow.
7 The one who goes to harvest it
will not find enough to cut and stack.
8 May no one walking by those wicked people ever say,
“May the Lord bless you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”
Zedekiah Asks Jeremiah Some Questions
14 Then King Zedekiah sent someone to get Jeremiah the prophet. He had Jeremiah brought to the third entrance to the Temple of the Lord. Then the king said, “Jeremiah, I am going to ask you something. Don’t hide anything from me, but tell me everything honestly.”
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, you will probably kill me. And even if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”
16 But King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah. Zedekiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, who gives us breath and life, I will not kill you, Jeremiah. And I promise not to give you to the officials who want to kill you.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “The Lord God All-Powerful is the God of Israel. This is what he says, ‘If you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be saved, and Jerusalem will not be burned down. And you and your family will live. 18 But if you refuse to surrender, Jerusalem will be given to the Babylonian army. They will burn Jerusalem down, and you will not escape from them.’”
19 But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “But I am afraid of the men of Judah who have already gone over to the side of the Babylonian army. I am afraid that the soldiers will give me to those men, and they will treat me badly and hurt me.”
20 But Jeremiah answered, “The soldiers will not give you to the men of Judah. King Zedekiah, obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then things will go well for you, and your life will be saved. 21 But if you refuse to surrender to the army of Babylon, the Lord has shown me what will happen. This is what he has told me: 22 All the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out. They will be brought to the important officials of the king of Babylon. Your women will make fun of you with a song. This is what they will say:
‘Your friends were stronger than you,
and they led you the wrong way.
You trusted them,
but now your feet are stuck in the mud,
and your friends have left you.’
23 “All your wives and children will be brought out. They will be given to the Babylonian army. You yourself will not escape from the army of Babylon. You will be captured by the king of Babylon, and Jerusalem will be burned down.”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell anyone that I have been talking to you. If you do, you might die. 25 If the officials find out that I talked to you, they will come to you and say, ‘Jeremiah, tell us what you said to King Zedekiah and what he said to you. Be honest with us, and tell us everything, or we will kill you.’ 26 If they say this to you, tell them, ‘I was begging the king not to send me back to the cell in the dungeon under Jonathan’s house. If I were to go back there, I would die.’”
27 It happened that the royal officials of the king did come to Jeremiah to question him. So Jeremiah told them everything the king had ordered him to say. Then they left Jeremiah alone. No one had heard what Jeremiah and the king had talked about.
28 So Jeremiah stayed under guard in the Temple yard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
Judging Problems Between Believers
6 When one of you has something against someone else in your group, why do you go to the judges in the law courts? The way they think and live is wrong. So why do you let them decide who is right? Why don’t you let God’s holy people decide who is right? 2 Don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? So if you will judge the world, then surely you can judge small arguments like this. 3 You know that in the future we will judge angels. So surely we can judge life’s ordinary problems. 4 So if you have such matters to be judged, why do you take them to those who are not part of the church? They mean nothing to you. 5 I say this to shame you. Surely there is someone in your group wise enough to judge a complaint between two believers. 6 But now one believer goes to court against another, and you let people who are not believers judge their case!
7 The lawsuits that you have against each other show that you are already defeated. It would be better for you to let someone wrong you. It would be better to let someone cheat you. 8 But you are the ones doing wrong and cheating. And you do this to your own brothers and sisters in Christ!
9-10 Surely you know that people who do wrong will not get to enjoy God’s kingdom. Don’t be fooled. These are the people who will not get to enjoy his kingdom: those who sin sexually, those who worship idols, those who commit adultery, men who let other men use them for sex or who have sex with other men, those who steal, those who are greedy, those who drink too much, those who abuse others with insults, and those who cheat. 11 In the past some of you were like that. But you were washed clean, you were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International