Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
114 The people of Israel came out of Egypt.
The people of Jacob left a land where a different language was spoken.
2 Then Judah became the holy place where God lived.
Israel became the land he ruled over.
3 The Red Sea saw him and parted.
The Jordan River stopped flowing.
4 The mountains leaped like rams.
The hills skipped like lambs.
5 Red Sea, why did you part?
Jordan River, why did you stop flowing?
6 Why did you mountains leap like rams?
Why did you hills skip like lambs?
7 Earth, tremble with fear when the Lord comes.
Tremble when the God of Jacob is near.
8 He turned the rock into a pool.
He turned the hard rock into springs of water.
2 1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said,
“When I was in trouble, I called out to the Lord.
And he answered me.
When I was deep in the place of the dead,
I called out for help.
And you listened to my cry.
3 You threw me deep into the Mediterranean Sea.
I was deep down in its waters.
They were all around me.
All your rolling waves
were sweeping over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been driven away from you.
But I will look again
toward your holy temple in Jerusalem.’
5 I had almost drowned in the waves.
The deep waters were all around me.
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I sank down to the bottom of the mountains.
I thought I had died
and gone down into the grave forever.
But you are the Lord my God.
You brought my life up
from the very edge of the pit of death.
7 “When my life was nearly over,
I remembered you, Lord.
My prayer rose up to you.
It reached you in your holy temple in heaven.
8 “Some people worship the worthless statues of their gods.
They turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I will sacrifice a thank offering to you.
And I will shout with thankful praise.
I will do what I have promised.
I will say, ‘Lord, you are the one who saves.’ ”
10 The Lord gave the fish a command. And it spit Jonah up onto dry land.
The Sign of Jonah
38 Some of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law came to Jesus. They said, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39 He answered, “Evil and unfaithful people ask for a sign! But none will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and three nights. Something like that will happen to the Son of Man. He will spend three days and three nights in the grave. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up on judgment day with the people now living. And the Ninevites will prove that these people are guilty. The men of Nineveh turned away from their sins when Jonah preached to them. And now something more important than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will stand up on judgment day with the people now living. And she will prove that they are guilty. She came from very far away to listen to Solomon’s wisdom. And now something more important than Solomon is here.
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