Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Then Hannah prayed out of her deepest feelings.
Hannah: My heart rejoices in the Eternal One;
my strength grows strong in the Eternal.
My mouth can mock my enemies
because I celebrate how You have saved me!
2 No one is holy like the Eternal One—
no, no one but You;
and there is no rock as solid as our True God.
3 Stop talking so proudly,
and don’t let such arrogance flow from your lips,
For the Eternal One is a True God who knows,
and He weighs the actions He sees.
4 The bows of the mighty crack in two,
but the feeble are given new strength.
5 Those who were full have had to work hard so they can eat,
but those who were starving have become fat with rich food.
The one who was infertile has borne seven children,
while the one who bore many sits alone in sadness.
6 The Eternal One kills and brings to life;
He sends down to the grave and raises up new life.
7 The Eternal One makes both poor and rich;
some He humbles, and others He honors.
8 He lifts the poor up out of the dust,
the needy from the trash heap.
He raises them to sit with princes
and seats them on a glorious throne.
For the pillars of the earth are the Eternal One’s,
and on them, He has set the world.
9 He will watch over the footsteps of the faithful,
but the wicked will be made silent in the darkness,
for one does not win by strength alone.
10 The Eternal One will shatter His foes;
from His throne in heaven, He will thunder with rage.
The Eternal One will be judge to the ends of the earth;
He gives strength to His king,
And power to the one He chooses to rule.
3 The boy Samuel continued to serve the Eternal One under the guidance of Eli. In those days, messages from the Eternal were rare, and sacred dreams or visions were given to very few.
2 Eli, who was very old, had become almost blind. He was lying in his room; 3 it was late at night but before dawn as the lamp of God still burned. Samuel was resting in the house of the Eternal One, where the covenant chest of the True God was located, and he heard a voice.
Eternal One: 4 Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Here I am! 5 (running to Eli) I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down.
So Samuel went back to bed. 6 But the Eternal called him again.
Eternal One: Samuel!
Samuel (running to Eli): I heard you calling; here I am!
Eli: No, I did not call you, my son. Go back, and lie down. I need my rest.
7 Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Eternal One, for the word of the Eternal had not been revealed to Samuel yet. So Samuel went back again to his bed. 8 And the Eternal One called him a third time.
Samuel (running to Eli): I know you called me; I am here!
Eli (realizing the Lord was calling Samuel): 9 Go back and lie down, my son. If the voice calls you again, I want you to say, “Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.”
So Samuel went to his bed in his place and listened. 10 Then the Eternal One came into his presence as before.
Eternal One: Samuel! Samuel!
Samuel: Speak, Eternal One. Your servant is listening.
Eternal One: 11 Pay attention! I am about to do something so amazing in Israel that it will sting the ears of everyone who hears it. 12 The day is coming when I will carry out the vow I made to Eli about his family, every word of it. 13 I have told him that I will punish his house forever for the sins of his sons, bringing a curse on themselves that he knew about but did nothing to stop. 14 So I vow that the sins of the house of Eli may never be atoned for by sacrifice or by offering.
15 After hearing this message, Samuel lay there until morning and then opened the doors of the Eternal One’s house, but he was afraid to tell Eli what God had said to him.
Eli: 16 Samuel, my son.
Samuel: Here I am.
Eli: 17 What was it that He told you? Tell me everything. May the True God carry out His vengeance on you and worse, if you hold anything back from me that He said to you.
18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing.
Eli: This message is truly from the Eternal One. Let Him do what seems good to Him.
The religious leaders ask Jesus where His authority comes from. What gives Him the right to heal people on the Sabbath, teach about God, do miracles, and cast out demons? Who exactly does He think He is—and where does His authority come from? This question is a trap: if He claims His authority is from God, then they can argue that God does not endorse someone who breaks His laws; but if He says His authority is His own, then He will be in trouble with the crowds and perhaps even with the Roman governor.
Jesus, however, issues a challenge: I’ll tell you what you want to know if you’ll answer My question first. But He asks them an impossible question—impossible not because they don’t know the answer, but because they cannot say the answer.
12 Then He told a story.
Jesus: There was a man who established a vineyard. He put up a wall around it to fence it in; he dug a pit for a winepress; he built a watchtower. When he had finished this work, he leased the vineyard to some tenant farmers and went away to a distant land.
2 When the grapes were in season, he sent a slave to the vineyard to collect his rent—his share of the fruit. 3 But the farmers grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back to his master empty-handed. 4 The owner sent another slave, and this slave the farmers beat over the head and sent away dishonored. 5 A third slave, the farmers killed. This went on for some time, with the farmers beating some of the messengers and killing others until the owner had lost all patience. 6 He had a son whom he loved above all things, and he said to himself, “When these thugs see my son, they’ll know he carries my authority. They’ll have to respect him.”
7 But when the tenant farmers saw the owner’s son coming, they said among themselves, “Look at this! It’s the son, the heir to this vineyard. If we kill him, then the land will be ours!” 8 So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 Now what do you suppose the owner will do when he hears of this? He’ll come and destroy these farmers, and he’ll give the land to others.
10 Haven’t you read the Scriptures? As the psalmist says,
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
11 This is the work of the Eternal One,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.[a]
12 The priests, scribes, temple leaders, and elders knew the story was directed against them. They couldn’t figure out how to lay their hands on Jesus then because they were afraid the people would rise up against them. So they left Him alone, and they went away furious.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.