Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Joyful Restoration of Zion

Psalm 126

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. ^{[a] 22} You are to take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply it to the crossbeam and two doorposts with the blood from the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. ²³ Adonai will pass through to strike down the Egyptians, but when He sees the blood on the crossbeam and the two doorposts, Adonai will pass over that door, and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you down. ²⁴ Also you are to observe this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.

²⁵ “When you come into the land which Adonai will give you as He has promised, you are to keep this ceremony. ²⁶ Now when it happens that your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ You are to say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Adonai’s Passover, because He passed over the houses of Bnei-Yisrael in Egypt, when He struck down the Egyptians, but spared our households.’” So the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

Better that One Man Die

⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Judeans, who had come to Miriam and had seen what Yeshua had done, put their trust in Him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Yeshua had done.

⁴⁷ So the ruling kohanim and Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we doing?” they asked. “This Man is performing many signs! ⁴⁸ If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our holy place and our nation.”

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was kohen gadol that year, said to them, “You know nothing! ⁵⁰ You don’t take into account that it is better for you that one man die for the people rather than for the whole nation to be destroyed.”

⁵¹ Now he did not say this by himself; but as the kohen gadol that year, he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the nation. ^{[a] 52} And not for the nation only, but also so that He might gather together into one the scattered children of God.^[b]

⁵³ So from that day on, they plotted to kill Him. ⁵⁴ Therefore Yeshua no longer walked openly among the Judeans, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with His disciples.

⁵⁵ Now the Jewish Passover was near; and many people went up out of the regions to Jerusalem before Passover, to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ So they were searching for Yeshua, saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Won’t He come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷ Now the ruling kohanim and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it so that they might arrest Him.