Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Prayer for Help—Praise for the Answer
28 O Lord, to You I call. O my Rock, listen to me. If You will not hear me, I will be like those who have gone down to the grave. 2 Hear my cry for loving-kindness as I call to You for help, and when I lift up my hands to Your holy place. 3 Do not drag me away with the sinful and with those who do bad things. They speak peace with their neighbors, while sin is in their hearts. 4 Pay them for their work and for the sins they do. Pay them for the works of their hands. Give them what they have earned. 5 They do not think about the works of the Lord and what His hands have done. So He will pull them down and not build them up again.
6 May honor and thanks be given to the Lord, because He has heard my prayer. 7 The Lord is my strength and my safe cover. My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. So my heart is full of joy. I will thank Him with my song. 8 The Lord is the strength of His people. He is a safe place for His chosen one. 9 Save Your people and bring good to what is Yours. Be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Those Not Faithful Are Judged
12 Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, 13 “Son of man, if a country sins against Me by not being faithful, I will put out My hand against it. I will destroy its store of bread, and send hunger against it, and take away both man and animal from it. 14 For even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in this country, they would save only their own lives by being right and good,” says the Lord God. 15 “If I sent wild animals to pass through the land to kill its people and destroy it so that no one would go through it because of the wild animals, 16 even if these three men were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the country would be laid waste. 17 If I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass through the country and cut off man and animal from it,’ 18 even if these three men were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved. 19 Or if I send a disease against that country and show My anger by killing, to take away man and animal from it, 20 even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their son or daughter. They would save only themselves by being right and good.
21 “For the Lord God says, ‘How much worse will it be when I send my four worst punishments against Jerusalem! I will send the sword, hunger, wild animals, and disease, to take away man and animal from it! 22 Yet there will be some people and their children left alive in it who will be brought out. When they come to you, see how sinful they are. Then you will know that all the trouble I brought upon Jerusalem was right. 23 It will help you when you see how they act. Then you will know that there was a good reason for everything I did,’ says the Lord God.”
The Healing of the Blind Men (A)
29 As they went away from the city of Jericho, many people followed Him. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the side of the road. They called out when they heard that Jesus was going by. They said, “Lord, take pity on us, Son of David!” 31 Many people spoke sharp words to them. They told the blind men not to call out. But they called all the more, “Lord! Take pity on us, Son of David!” 32 Jesus stopped and called them. He asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 33 The blind men said to Jesus, “Lord, we want our eyes opened!” 34 Jesus had loving-pity on them and put His hands on their eyes. At once they could see, and they followed Jesus.
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