Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
In Praise of Jerusalem[a]
122 I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the Lord's house.”
2 And now we are here,
standing inside the gates of Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is a city restored
in beautiful order and harmony.
4 This is where the tribes come,
the tribes of Israel,
to give thanks to the Lord
according to his command.
5 Here the kings of Israel
sat to judge their people.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you prosper.
7 May there be peace inside your walls
and safety in your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my relatives and friends
I say to Jerusalem, “Peace be with you!”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God
I pray for your prosperity.
11 but everyone else was evil in God's sight, and violence had spread everywhere. 12 God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.
13 God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. 14 Build a boat for yourself out of good timber; make rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. 15 Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof[a] for the boat and leave a space of 18 inches between the roof[b] and the sides. Build it with three decks and put a door in the side. 17 I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, 18 but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. 19-20 Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive. 21 Take along all kinds of food for you and for them.” 22 (A)Noah did everything that God commanded.
Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple(A)
24 Jesus left and was going away from the Temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Yes,” he said, “you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”
Troubles and Persecutions(B)
3 (C)As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him in private. “Tell us when all this will be,” they asked, “and what will happen to show that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age.”
4 Jesus answered, “Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you. 5 Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will fool many people. 6 You are going to hear the noise of battles close by and the news of battles far away; but do not be troubled. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. 7 (D)Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be famines and earthquakes everywhere. 8 All these things are like the first pains of childbirth.
9 (E)“Then you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and be put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. 10 Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people. 12 Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold. 13 (F)But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. 14 And this Good News about the Kingdom will be preached through all the world for a witness to all people; and then the end will come.
The Awful Horror(G)
15 (H)“You will see ‘The Awful Horror’ of which the prophet Daniel spoke. It will be standing in the holy place.” (Note to the reader: understand what this means!) 16 “Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. 17 (I)Someone who is on the roof of a house must not take the time to go down and get any belongings from the house. 18 Someone who is in the field must not go back to get a cloak. 19 How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies! 20 Pray to God that you will not have to run away during the winter or on a Sabbath! 21 (J)For the trouble at that time will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. 22 But God has already reduced the number of days; had he not done so, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, God will reduce the days.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.