Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 In the first year of Koresh king of Persia, in order for the word of Adonai prophesied by Yirmeyahu to be fulfilled, Adonai stirred up the spirit of Koresh king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom, which he also put in writing, as follows:

² “Here is what Koresh king of Persia says: Adonai, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms on earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah. ³ Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! He may go up to Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah, and build the house of Adonai the God of Isra’el, the God who is in Yerushalayim. ⁴ Let every survivor, no matter where he lives, be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, goods and animals, in addition to the voluntary offering for the house of God in Yerushalayim.”

⁵ The heads of fathers’ clans in Y’hudah and Binyamin, along with the cohanim, the L’vi’im, and indeed all whose spirit God had stirred, set out to go up and rebuild the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim. ⁶ All their neighbors supported them by giving them articles of silver, gold, goods, animals, and valuables, besides all their voluntary offerings.

⁷ In addition, Koresh the king brought out the vessels from the house of Adonai which N’vukhadnetzar had taken from Yerushalayim and put in the house of his god. ⁸ Koresh king of Persia had Mitr’dat the treasurer bring them out and make an inventory of them for Sheshbatzar the prince of Y’hudah. ⁹ The list was as follows:

¹¹ In all there were 5,400 articles of gold and silver. Sheshbatzar took all of them along when the exiles were brought up from Bavel to Yerushalayim.

¹² For we take pride in this: that our conscience assures us that in our dealings with the world, and especially with you, we have conducted ourselves with frankness and godly pureness of motive — not by worldly wisdom but by God-given grace. ¹³ There are no hidden meanings in our letters other than what you can read and understand; and my hope is that you will understand fully, ¹⁴ as indeed you have already understood us in part; so that on the Day of our Lord Yeshua you can be as proud of us as we are of you.

¹⁵ So sure was I of this that I had planned to come and see you, so that you might have the benefit of a second visit. ¹⁶ I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, and then have you send me on my way to Y’hudah.

¹⁷ Did I make these plans lightly? Or do I make plans the way a worldly man does, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” in the same breath? ¹⁸ As surely as God is trustworthy, we don’t say “Yes” when we mean “No.” ¹⁹ For the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who was proclaimed among you through us — that is, through me and Sila and Timothy — was not a yes-and-no man; on the contrary, with him it is always “Yes!”