Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
2 Why do the nations gather together?
Why do their people devise useless plots?
2 Kings take their stands.
Rulers make plans together
against the Lord and against his Messiah [a] by saying,
3 “Let’s break apart their chains
and shake off their ropes.”
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord makes fun of them.
5 Then he speaks to them in his anger.
In his burning anger he terrifies them by saying,
6 “I have installed my own king on Zion, my holy mountain.”
7 I will announce the Lord’s decree.
He said to me:
“You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.
8 Ask me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance
and the ends of the earth as your own possession.
9 You will break them with an iron scepter.
You will smash them to pieces like pottery.”
10 Now, you kings, act wisely.
Be warned, you rulers of the earth!
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, or he will become angry
and you will die on your way
because his anger will burst into flames.
Blessed is everyone who takes refuge in him.
20 Ahab asked Elijah, “So you’ve found me, my enemy?”
Elijah answered, “I found you. Because you sold yourself to do what the Lord considers evil. 21 So I am going to bring evil on you. I will destroy your descendants. I will destroy every male [a] in Ahab’s ⌞house⌟, whether slave or freeman in Israel. 22 I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah, because you made me furious. You led Israel to sin.”
23 Then the Lord also spoke ⌞through Elijah⌟ about Jezebel: “The dogs will eat Jezebel inside the walls of Jezreel. 24 If anyone from Ahab’s ⌞house⌟ dies in the city, dogs will eat him. If anyone dies in the country, birds will eat him.”
25 There was no one else like Ahab. At the urging of his wife, he sold himself to do what the Lord considered evil. 26 He did many disgusting things as a result of worshiping idols as the Amorites had done. (The Lord confiscated their land for Israel.)
27 When Ahab heard these things, he tore his clothes ⌞in distress⌟ and dressed in sackcloth. He fasted, lay in sackcloth, and walked around depressed.
28 Then the Lord spoke his word to Elijah from Tishbe: 29 “Do you see how Ahab is humbling himself in my presence? Because he’s humbling himself in my presence, I will not let any evil happen to his family while he is alive. I will bring evil on it during his son’s lifetime.”
9 On their way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen. They were to wait until the Son of Man had come back to life. 10 They kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by “come back to life.” 11 So they asked him, “Don’t the experts in Moses’ Teachings say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus said to them, “Elijah is coming first and will put everything in order again. But in what sense was it written that the Son of Man must suffer a lot and be treated shamefully? 13 Indeed, I can guarantee that Elijah has come. Yet, people treated him as they pleased, as Scripture says about him.”
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