Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

A song of ascents.^[a]

The Decree of Cyrus

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to accomplish the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, Yahweh stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia and he sent a message to all of his kingdom and also put the message in writing:

² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: Yahweh, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he himself has appointed me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Whoever among you who is from all of his people, may his God be with him and may he go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may he build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ And let every survivor, from wherever he resides^[a] be assisted by the men of that place with silver and gold, with possessions and domestic animals, and with the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.”

⁵ So the heads of the families^[b] for Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites—to all whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem. ⁶ And all of their neighbors helped them^[c] with objects of silver, gold, possessions, domestic animals, and with valuable gifts—besides all of the freewill offering. ⁷ And Cyrus the king brought out the objects of the house of Yahweh that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. ⁸ Cyrus the king of Persia let them go out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ⁹ Now these were the inventories: thirty gold metal dishes, one thousand silver metal dishes, twenty-nine vessels, ¹⁰ thirty bowls of gold, four hundred and ten matching silver metal bowls, and one thousand other objects. ¹¹ All of the objects of gold and silver metal were five thousand four hundred. All this Sheshbazzar brought up along with the exiles from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

Paul’s Clear Conscience

¹² For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, in holiness^[a] and purity of motive from God, not^[b] in merely human wisdom, but by the grace of God. ¹³ For we are not writing anything else to you except what you can read or also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely^[c], ¹⁴ just as you have also understood us in part, that we are your reason for boasting, just as you are also ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Paul Delays His Visit to Corinth

¹⁵ And with this confidence, I was wanting to come to you previously, in order that you may have a second proof of my goodwill, ¹⁶ and through you to go to Macedonia, and to come to you again from Macedonia, and to be sent on my way by you to Judea. ¹⁷ Therefore, when I^[d] was wanting to do this, perhaps then was I making use of vacillation? Or was I deciding what I was deciding according to the flesh, in order that with me my “yes” may be “yes” and my “no” may be “no” at the same time?^{[e] 18} But God is faithful, so that our word to you is not “yes” and “no.” ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, did not become “yes” and “no,” but has become “yes” in him.