Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

145 Alleluia, of Aggeus and Zacharias.

² Praise the Lord, O my soul, in my life I will praise the Lord: I will sing to my God as long as I shall be. Put not your trust in princes:

³ In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.

⁴ His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.

⁵ Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God:

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus the prophet, to Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, governor of Juda, and to Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, saying:

² Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: This people saith: The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.

³ And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus the prophet, saying:

⁴ Is it time for you to dwell in ceiled houses, and this house lie desolate?

⁵ And now thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts to consider your ways.

⁶ You have sowed much, and brought in little: you have eaten, but have not had enough: you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink: you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed: and he that hath earned wages, put them into a bag with holes.

⁷ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Set Your hearts upon your ways:

⁸ Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, saith the Lord.

⁹ You have looked for more, and behold it became less, and you brought it home, and I blowed it away: why, saith the Lord of hosts? because my house is desolate, and you make haste every man to his own house.

¹⁰ Therefore the heavens over you were stayed from giving dew, and the earth was hindered from yielding her fruits:

¹¹ And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon all that the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon beasts, and upon all the labour of the hands.

¹² Then Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, and all the remnant of the people hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, and to the words of Aggeus the prophet, as the Lord their God sent him to them: and the people feared before the Lord.

¹³ And Aggeus the messenger of the Lord, as one of the messengers of the Lord, spoke, saying to the people: I am with you, saith the Lord.

¹⁴ And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zorobabel the son of Salathiel governor of Juda, and the spirit of Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people: and they went in, and did the work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God.

20 And it came to pass, that on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes, with the ancients, met together,

² And spoke to him, saying: Tell us, by what authority dost thou these things? or, Who is he that hath given thee this authority?

³ And Jesus answering, said to them: I will also ask you one thing. Answer me:

⁴ The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?

⁵ But they thought within themselves, saying: If we shall say, From heaven: he will say: Why then did you not believe him?

⁶ But if we say, Of men, the whole people will stone us: for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.

⁷ And they answered, that they knew not whence it was.

⁸ And Jesus said to them: Neither do I tell thee by what authority I do these things.