Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Lord's king rules[a]
2 Why are nations making plans to turn against the Lord?
All their plans will fail!
2 Kings and rulers decide to work together,
to fight against the Lord
and the king that he has chosen.
3 They say, ‘We will not accept their authority over us!
We will get free from their power!’[b]
4 The Lord who sits on his throne in heaven laughs at them.
He says that their plans are useless.
5 Then he becomes very angry and he frightens them.
He warns them with strong words and he says,
6 ‘I have put my king on his throne in Zion.[c]
I have put him on my holy mountain.’
7 I will tell you what the Lord has promised to me, his king.
He said to me, ‘You are my son.
Yes, today I have become your father![d]
8 Ask me and see what I will do!
I will give you all the nations on the earth.
They will all belong to you.
9 You will break them with an iron sceptre,
as if they are clay pots.’
10 So, you kings, think carefully!
You who rule the nations of the world, learn this lesson:
11 Respect the Lord and serve him.
Enjoy his rule with fear!
12 Bend down low in front of his son!
If not, the Lord will be angry.
He will quickly become very angry.
You will suddenly die!
But as for those who serve the Lord as their king,
he blesses them and he takes care of them all.
Jeremiah and Pashhur
20 Immer's son Pashhur was the priest who had authority in the Lord's temple. He heard Jeremiah's message about Jerusalem. 2 So he told his men to beat Jeremiah. Then they tied Jeremiah up with heavy pieces of wood on his legs. That was at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord's temple. 3 The next day, Pashhur let Jeremiah go free. Jeremiah said to him, ‘The Lord's name for you is not “Pashhur”. It is “Terror is all around”. 4 The Lord says, “I will send enemies to make you and your friends very afraid. You yourself will see enemies kill all your friends in war. I will put Judah's people under the power of Babylon's king. He will take some of them away as prisoners. His soldiers will kill others of them. 5 I will give all the riches in this city to Judah's enemies. I will give them all the things that the people have worked hard to get. They will take all the valuable things that belonged to the people, and to the kings of Judah. They will take everything away to Babylon. 6 They will also take you, Pashhur, and everybody who lives in your house. They will take you as prisoners to Babylon. You will die there and people will bury you there. The same thing will happen to all your friends. You spoke false messages to these people, as if they were messages from me.” ’
Jeremiah complains to the Lord
7 Lord, you forced me to become a prophet,
and I let you do that.
You used your power to make me agree,
and you won.
Now everybody laughs at me and they insult me.
8 When I speak your message, I have to say,
‘Terrible trouble is coming!’
When I shout that message from the Lord,
people laugh at me.
They insult me.
9 Sometimes I think,
‘I will say nothing about the Lord or his message.’
But then his message burns like a fire inside me.
It gives me pain in my mind and my body.
I cannot keep his message to myself.
I have to speak it.
10 I hear what people are saying against me.
They say, ‘Terror is all around him![a]
We should tell the officers what he is saying.’
All my friends want me to make a mistake
so that they can accuse me.
They say, ‘Perhaps we can cause him to say something wrong.
Then we will have power over him.
We will pay him back for the trouble he has given us.’
11 But the Lord is with me,
like a brave soldier who will fight for me.
So people who want to hurt me will fail.
They will not get power over me.
They will be very ashamed because they have failed.
Nobody will ever forget their shame.
12 Lord Almighty, you test righteous people,
to see if they are faithful.
You know what people think.
You know their feelings.
I trust you to show that I am not guilty.
So punish those people who want to hurt me.
13 Sing to the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
He rescues poor people
from the power of wicked people.
14 I would like to curse the day that I was born.
That day was not a happy day,
the day that my mother gave birth to me.
15 That day, a man told my father,
‘Good news! You have a son!’
I would like to curse that man too.
16 May the Lord destroy that man,
as he completely destroyed those cities long ago.[b]
I want that man to hear people who are weeping in the morning.
I want him to hear the noise of battles at noon.
17 He should have killed me before I was born.
I should have died inside my mother.
She would have held me inside her.
That would have been my grave for ever.
18 I should have stayed in that safe place.
In my life, I only receive trouble and pain.
When I die, all I will have is shame.
Jesus meets a rich ruler
18 A Jewish ruler came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’
19 Jesus asked him, ‘Why do you say that I am good? Only God is good. Nobody else. 20 You know God's rules: “Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not kill anyone. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. Love your father and your mother, and obey them.” ’
21 The man replied, ‘I have obeyed all these laws since I was a young man.’
22 Jesus heard what he said and he replied, ‘There is still just one thing that you must do. You must sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’
23 When the ruler heard this, he became very sad. This was because he was a very rich man.
24 Jesus saw that the ruler had become sad. He said, ‘It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. 25 The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
26 The people who were listening to Jesus said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’ 27 Jesus replied, ‘God can do things that are impossible for people to do.’
28 Peter then said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples.’
29 Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their wife or their brothers. Or they may have left their parents or their children. They have done this to work for the kingdom of God. 30 Now, in this world, God will give these people many more things than they have left behind. And in the future world they will live for ever with God.’
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