Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
25 I offer praise in the great congregation
because of you;
I will fulfill my promises
in the presence of those who honor God.
26 Let all those who are suffering eat and be full!
Let all who seek the Lord praise him!
I pray your hearts live forever!
27 Every part of the earth
will remember and come back to the Lord;
every family among all the nations will worship you.
28 Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,
he rules all nations.
29 Indeed, all the earth’s powerful
will worship him;[a]
all who are descending to the dust
will kneel before him;
my being also lives for him.[b]
30 Future descendants will serve him;
generations to come will be told about my Lord.
31 They will proclaim God’s righteousness
to those not yet born,
telling them what God has done.
Divine address to the Israelites
7 Aren’t you like the Cushites to me,
people of Israel?
says the Lord.
Haven’t I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
8 Look, the Lord God is eyeing the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
However, I won’t destroy fully the house of Jacob,
says the Lord.
Warning to the house of Israel
9 Look, I am giving orders,
and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one sifts dirt with a screen,
but no pebble will fall to the ground.
10 All the sinners of my people will die by the sword,
those who say,
“Evil won’t overtake or meet us.”
Divine promise of restoration
11 On that day I will raise up
the meeting tent of David that has fallen,
and repair its broken places.
I will raise up its ruins,
and I will rebuild it like a long time ago;
12 so that they may possess what is left of Edom,
as well as all the nations who are called by my name,
says the Lord who will do this.
13 The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when the one who plows
will overtake the one who gathers,
when the one who crushes grapes
will overtake the one who sows the seed.
The mountains will drip wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.
14 I will improve the circumstances of my people Israel;
they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
and they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant them upon their land,
and they will never again be plucked up
out of the land that I have given them,
says the Lord your God.
30 He continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? 31 Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; 32 but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible