Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁷ Do good to Your servant so I may live and obey Your Word. ¹⁸ Open my eyes so that I may see great things from Your Law. ¹⁹ I am a stranger on the earth. Do not hide Your Word from me. ²⁰ My soul is crushed with a desire for Your Law at all times. ²¹ You speak sharp words to the proud, the hated ones, because they turn from Your Word. ²² Take away shame and bad feelings from me, for I have kept Your Law. ²³ Even if rulers sit together and speak against me, Your servant thinks about Your Law. ²⁴ Your Law is my joy and it tells me what to do.

²⁵ My soul is laid in the dust. Give me new life because of Your Word. ²⁶ I have told about my ways, and You have answered me. Teach me Your Law. ²⁷ Make me understand the way of Your Law so I will talk about Your great works. ²⁸ My soul cries because of sorrow. Give me strength because of Your Word. ²⁹ Take the false way from me. Show Your loving-favor by giving me Your Law. ³⁰ I have chosen the faithful way. I have set Your Law in front of me. ³¹ I hold on to Your Law, O Lord. Do not put me to shame. ³² I will run the way of Your Law, for You will give me a willing heart.

⁵ The Lord God of All is the One Who touches the land and it melts. All those who live in it are filled with sorrow. All of it rises and falls like the Nile River of Egypt. ⁶ The Lord builds His upper rooms in the heavens and sets His sky over the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. The Lord is His name.

⁷ “Are you not like the Ethiopians to Me, you people of Israel?” says the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? ⁸ See, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful nation, and I will destroy it from the earth. But I will not destroy all the people of Jacob,” says the Lord.

⁹ “I will say what must be done. I will shake the people of Jacob among all the nations, as grain is shaken on a fine net. But not the smallest seed will fall to the ground. ¹⁰ All the sinners among My people who say, ‘The trouble will not catch up to us or come to us,’ will die by the sword.

Israel to Have New Life

¹¹ “In that day I will build again the tent of David that fell down. Yes, I will build it again from the stones that fell down. I will set it up again as it used to be. ¹² And so the people of Israel will own what is left of the land of Edom and all the nations that are called by My name,” says the Lord who does this.

¹³ “The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when the man who plows will catch up with the man who gathers. The man who crushes the grapes will catch up with the man who plants the seed. The mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it. ¹⁴ And I will return My people Israel to their riches. They will build again the cities that have been destroyed, and live in them. They will plant grape-fields and drink their wine. And they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will plant My people on their land. And they will never again be pulled up from the land I gave them,” says the Lord your God.

⁴¹ The Jews talked among themselves against Him. They did not like it because He said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They asked each other, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know His father and mother. How can He say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ Jesus said to them, “Do not talk among yourselves against Me. ⁴⁴ The Father sent Me. No man can come to Me unless the Father gives him the desire to come to Me. Then I will raise him to life on the last day. ⁴⁵ The early preachers wrote, ‘They will all be taught of God.’ ^(A) Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father. I am the only One Who has seen Him. ⁴⁷ For sure, I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me has life that lasts forever. ⁴⁸ I am the Bread of Life. ⁴⁹ Your early fathers ate bread that came from heaven in the desert. They died. ⁵⁰ But this is the Bread that comes down from heaven. The one who eats it never dies. ⁵¹ I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this Bread, he will live forever. The Bread which I will give is My flesh. I will give this for the life of the world.”