Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 99
The Holy One Rules in Israel
Admonition to the Nations
1 The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble.
He is seated above the cherubim. Let the earth quake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your name, great and awesome.
Refrain
He is holy!
Assurance to Israel
4 The King is mighty. He loves justice.
You, Lord,[a] have established fairness.
In Jacob you carried out justice and righteousness.
5 Exalt the Lord our God and bow down before his footstool.
Refrain
He is holy!
Examples From History
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests.
Samuel was among those who call on his name.
They called on the Lord, and he answered them.
7 From within the pillar of cloud he spoke to them.
They kept his testimonies and the order that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them.
For them you were a God who removes sin,
but you repaid them for their deeds.
Concluding Refrain
9 Exalt the Lord our God,
and bow down before his holy mountain,
because the Lord our God is holy.
22 Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 23 So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I keep hearing from all these people about your evil actions. 24 No, my sons, it is not a good report that I hear! The people are spreading this report everywhere.[a] 25 If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will mediate for him?” But they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to put them to death.[b]
26 The young man Samuel continued to grow, and he increased in favor with both the Lord and with men.
The Lord’s Warning to Eli
27 A man of God came to Eli and told him this:
This is what the Lord says. Didn’t I clearly reveal myself to the house of your father[c] when they were in Egypt, subject to the house of Pharaoh? 28 Out of all the tribes of Israel, I chose him to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the special vest before me. I also gave the house of your father all the food offerings[d] from the people of Israel. 29 Why do you all kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded for my dwelling place?[e] Why do you, Eli, honor your sons more than me? Why do you fatten yourselves with the best of all the offerings from my people Israel?
30 Therefore this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel: I stated solemnly that your house[f] and the house of your father would walk before me forever. But now the Lord declares, “This will never be! Yes, I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed.” 31 Look, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will never be an old man in your house. 32 You will see the distress of the dwelling place. Even when things are good for Israel, there shall never be an old man in your house. 33 Any man of yours whom I do not cut off from my altar will only wear out your eyes with tears and your heart with grief, and all the future generations of your house will die before they reach old age.[g]
34 This will be the sign for you that will come on your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: In one day they will both die. 35 I will raise up a faithful priest for myself, one who will act according to what is in my heart and in my soul. I will build an enduring house for him, and he will walk before my anointed one forever. 36 Then anyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to the faithful priest to receive a piece of silver and a loaf of bread. The one who is left will say, “Please appoint me to one of the priests’ offices, so that I can eat a scrap of bread.”
Healing at the Pool
5 After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda[a] in Aramaic,[b] which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—who were waiting for the movement of the water. 4 For an angel would go down at certain times into the pool and stir up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.[c] 5 One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been sick a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked.
That day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! You are not permitted to carry your mat.”
11 He answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went back and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.
God’s Son
16 So the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working right up to the present time, and I am working too.”
18 This is why the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he was not merely breaking the Sabbath, but was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.