Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people!
69 “And He has raised up the Horn of Salvation unto us, in the House of His servant David,
70 “as He spoke by the mouth of His Holy Prophets. Who were, since the world began, saying,
71 ‘deliverance from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us.’
72 “So that He might show mercy towards our fathers, and remember His Holy Covenant -
73 “the oath, which He swore to our father, Abraham -
74 “that he would grant to us. So that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear
75 “all the days of our life, in holiness and righteousness before him.
76 “And you, child, shall be called the Prophet of the Most High. For you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 “to give knowledge of salvation to His people, by the remission of their sins
78 “through the tender mercy of our God (whereby the Dayspring from on high has visited us),
79 “to give light to those who sit in darkness (and in the shadow of death), and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
18 Therefore, thus says the LORD against Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother,’ or ‘Ah sister.’ Nor shall they mourn for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord,’ or ‘Ah, his glory.’
19 “He shall be buried as a donkey is buried, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry! Shout in Bashan, and cry by the passages! For all your lovers are destroyed.
21 “I spoke to you when you were in prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, that you would not obey My Voice.
22 “The spirit shall feed all your shepherds. And your lovers shall go into captivity. And then you shall be ashamed of all your wickedness and confounded.
23 “You who dwell in Lebanon, and make your nest in the cedars, how beautiful shall you be when sorrows come upon you, as the sorrow of a woman in labor?
24 “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet of My right Hand, yet would I pluck you from there.
25 “And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whose faces you fear, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 “And I will cause them to carry you away, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born. And there you shall die.
27 “But to the land to which they desire to return, they shall not return to it.
28 “Is not this man, Coniah, a despised and broken idol or a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they carried away, he and his seed, and cast out into a land that they do not know?
29 “O Earth, Earth, Earth! Hear the Word of the LORD!
30 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days. For there shall be no man from his seed who shall prosper and sit upon the throne of David or bear rule anymore in Judah.’”
15 They also brought little children to Him, so that He could touch them. And when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
16 But Jesus called them to Him, and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them. For of such is the Kingdom of God.
17 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein.”
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