Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Hannah Gives Thanks

2 Hannah said,

God Calls Samuel

3 The boy Samuel was Eli’s helper and served the Lord with him. At that time the Lord did not speak directly to people very often. There were very few visions.

² Eli’s eyes were getting so weak that he was almost blind. One night he went to his room to go to bed. ³ The special lamp in the Lord’s temple^[a] was still burning, so Samuel lay down in the temple near where the Holy Box was. ⁴ The Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ Samuel thought Eli was calling him, so he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”

But Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”

So Samuel went back to bed. ⁶ Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” Again Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”

Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”

⁷ Samuel did not yet know the Lord because the Lord had not spoken directly to him before.^[b]

⁸ The Lord called Samuel the third time. Again Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”

Finally, Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Eli told Samuel, “Go to bed. If he calls you again, say, ‘Speak, Lord. I am your servant, and I am listening.’”

So Samuel went back to bed. ¹⁰ The Lord came and stood there. He called as he did before, saying, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel said, “Speak. I am your servant, and I am listening.”

¹¹ The Lord said to Samuel, “I will soon do things in Israel that will shock anyone who hears about them. ¹² I will do everything I said I would do against Eli and his family, everything from the beginning to the end. ¹³ I told Eli I would punish his family forever. I will do this because Eli knew his sons were saying and doing bad things against God. But he failed to control them. ¹⁴ That is why I swore an oath that sacrifices and offerings will never take away the sins of the people in Eli’s family.^[c]”

¹⁵ Samuel lay down in bed until the morning came. He got up early and opened the doors of the Lord’s house. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.

¹⁶ But Eli said to Samuel, “Samuel, my son.”

Samuel answered, “Yes, sir.”

¹⁷ Eli asked, “What did God say to you? Don’t hide it from me. God will punish you if you hide anything from the message he spoke to you.”

¹⁸ So Samuel told Eli everything. He did not hide anything from him.

Eli said, “He is the Lord. Let him do whatever he thinks is right.”

God Sends His Son^(A)

12 Jesus used stories to teach the people. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around the field and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip.

² “Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent a servant to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. ³ But the farmers grabbed the servant and beat him. They sent him away with nothing. ⁴ Then the man sent another servant to the farmers. They hit this servant on the head, showing no respect for him. ⁵ So the man sent another servant. The farmers killed this servant. The man sent many other servants to the farmers. The farmers beat some of them and killed the others.

⁶ “The man had only one person left to send to the farmers. It was his son. He loved his son, but he decided to send him. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’

⁷ “But the farmers said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son, and this vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁹ “So what will the man who owns the vineyard do? He will go and kill those farmers. Then he will lease the land to others. ¹⁰ Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:

¹² When these Jewish leaders heard this story, they knew it was about them. They wanted to find a way to arrest Jesus, but they were afraid of what the crowd would do. So they left him and went away.