Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This is a song that David wrote.

Tell the music leader, ‘Use harps when you sing this song.’

David prays for health^[a]

¹⁹ Elisha said to Naaman, ‘Go home with peace in your mind.’ Then Naaman started on his way home.

²⁰ Elisha's servant, Gehazi, thought, ‘My master did not accept the gifts that Naaman offered to him. He made it too easy for that Syrian man. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him. I will accept a gift from him.’ ²¹ So Gehazi ran quickly after Naaman before he had gone very far. Naaman saw that a man was running after him. So he got down from his chariot to meet him. Naaman asked Gehazi, ‘Is everything well?’ ²² Gehazi answered, ‘Everything is well. My master sent me with this message: “Two young men from the group of prophets have just arrived at my house. They have come from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them 3,000 pieces of silver and two sets of clothes.” ’

²³ Naaman said, ‘Yes, I will. But please agree to take 6,000 pieces of silver.’ He asked Gehazi to accept them. He put the 6,000 pieces of silver into two bags, as well as two sets of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them in front of Gehazi. ²⁴ When Gehazi reached a hill near Elisha's house, he took the things from the servants. He put them in his own room. He told the servants to go back to Naaman.

²⁵ Gehazi went in and he stood in front of his master. Elisha asked Gehazi, ‘Where have you been?’ Gehazi answered, ‘I have not been anywhere, sir.’ ²⁶ But Elisha said to him, ‘My spirit was with you when you went out. It was there when the man came down from his chariot to meet you. This is not the proper time to accept gifts of money, clothes, olive trees, vineyards, sheep, cows or servants. ²⁷ Now you will have the same disease in your skin that Naaman had! It will always be with you and your descendants.’

Then Gehazi went away from Elisha. His skin had already become white like snow because of the disease.

²⁸ When the workers heard Demetrius, they became very angry. They all shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’ ²⁹ More and more people in the whole city began to shout. There was trouble everywhere. Gaius and Aristarchus had been travelling with Paul. They had come with him from Macedonia. Some people from the crowd took hold of Gaius and Aristarchus. They pulled them quickly to the big public meeting place in the middle of the city.^[a]

³⁰ Paul himself wanted to go there. He wanted to speak to the crowd. But the other believers would not let him do that. ³¹ Some Roman officers in that region were Paul's friends. They also sent a message to him. They said to him, ‘Please, do not go to the meeting place.’

³² The crowd of people in the meeting place continued to shout loudly. Some people were shouting one thing and other people were shouting something different. Not many of the people even knew why they had all met together. ³³ There was a Jewish man called Alexander in the crowd. The Jews pushed him to the front of the crowd. He raised his hands towards the people, so that they would be quiet. He wanted to explain to them that he and his Jewish friends had not caused the trouble. ³⁴ But the crowd knew that Alexander was a Jew. So they continued to shout the same words for about two hours. All together they shouted, ‘Our god Artemis of Ephesus is very great!’

³⁵ After two hours, an important officer of the city caused the crowd to be quiet. He said, ‘People of Ephesus! Everybody knows about our god Artemis who has her temple here in Ephesus. People come here to worship her. Her special stone that fell from the sky is also here in Ephesus. We take care of all her things. Everybody knows that! ³⁶ Nobody can say that this is not true. So be careful! Do not quickly do anything that is silly. ³⁷ You have brought Gaius and Aristarchus here to the city officers' meeting place. But what bad thing have they done? They have not robbed the house of Artemis. They have not said bad things against her. ³⁸ Perhaps Demetrius and his workers think that someone has done a bad thing to them. If they think that, they should let a judge decide. There are officers for the government who will do this. If someone has done a wrong thing, people should tell a judge.

³⁹ So, if you want to argue about these problems any more, do it properly. Go to the place where the judges meet. ⁴⁰ Today, there is a crowd of people who are shouting and fighting. The Roman rulers may hear about what has happened. They will say that we have done bad things. We could not explain to them the reason why there is all this trouble.’ ⁴¹ When the officer had said all this, he said to the crowd, ‘All of you should go home now.’