Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶⁸ “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to visit his people and has redeemed them. ⁶⁹ He is sending us a Mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, ⁷⁰ just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago— ⁷¹ someone to save us from our enemies, from all who hate us.

^72-73 “He has been merciful to our ancestors, yes, to Abraham himself, by remembering his sacred promise to him, ⁷⁴ and by granting us the privilege of serving God fearlessly, freed from our enemies, ⁷⁵ and by making us holy and acceptable, ready to stand in his presence forever.

⁷⁶ “And you, my little son, shall be called the prophet of the glorious God, for you will prepare the way for the Messiah. ⁷⁷ You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. ⁷⁸ All this will be because the mercy of our God is very tender, and heaven’s dawn is about to break upon us, ⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

¹⁸ Therefore this is God’s decree of punishment against King Jehoiakim, who succeeded his father Josiah on the throne: His family will not weep for him when he dies. His subjects will not even care that he is dead. ¹⁹ He shall be buried like a dead donkey—dragged out of Jerusalem and thrown on the garbage dump beyond the gate! ²⁰ Weep, for your allies are gone. Search for them in Lebanon; shout for them at Bashan; seek them at the fording points of Jordan. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you! ²¹ When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, “Don’t bother me.” Since childhood you have been that way—you just won’t listen! ²² And now all your allies have disappeared with a puff of wind; all your friends are taken off as slaves. Surely at last you will see your wickedness and be ashamed. ²³ It’s very nice to live graciously in a beautiful palace among the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will cry and groan in anguish—anguish as of a woman in labor.

^24-25 And as for you, Coniah,^[a] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah—even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off and give you to those who seek to kill you, of whom you are so desperately afraid—to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his mighty army. ²⁶ I will throw you and your mother out of this country, and you shall die in a foreign land. ²⁷ You will never again return to the land of your desire. ²⁸ This man Coniah is like a discarded, broken dish. He and his children will be exiled to distant lands.

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth! Hear the word of the Lord! ³⁰ The Lord says: Record this man Coniah as childless, for none of his children shall ever sit upon the throne of David or rule in Judah.^[b] His life will amount to nothing.

¹⁵ One day some mothers brought their babies to him to touch and bless. But the disciples told them to go away.

^16-17 Then Jesus called the children over to him and said to the disciples, “Let the little children come to me! Never send them away! For the Kingdom of God belongs to men who have hearts as trusting as these little children’s. And anyone who doesn’t have their kind of faith will never get within the Kingdom’s gates.”