Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord Our God Is Holy

Eli Rebukes His Sons

²² Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who ^(A)were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ²³ And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. ²⁴ No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. ²⁵ If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, ^(B)for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.

²⁶ Now the boy Samuel ^(C)continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.

The Lord Rejects Eli's Household

²⁷ And there came ^(D)a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ^(E)‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? ^28 (F)Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, ^(G)to wear an ephod before me? ^(H)I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. ²⁹ Why then do you ^(I)scorn^[a] my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ ³⁰ Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ^(J)‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ ^(K)but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. ³¹ Behold, ^(L)the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. ³² Then ^(M)in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, ^(N)and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. ³³ The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his^[b] eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants^[c] of your house shall die by the sword of men.^{[d] 34 (O)}And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die ^(P)on the same day. ^35 (Q)And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. ^(R)And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before ^(S)my anointed forever. ³⁶ And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests' places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”

The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

5 After this there was a ^(A)feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by ^(B)the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic^[a] called Bethesda,^[b] which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and ^(C)paralyzed.^{[c] 5} One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, ^(D)“Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ^9 (E)And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

^(F)Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews^[d] said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and ^(G)it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for ^(H)Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! ^(I)Sin no more, ^(J)that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews ^(K)were persecuting Jesus, ^(L)because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus Is Equal with God

¹⁸ This was why the Jews ^(M)were seeking all the more to kill him, ^(N)because not only was he ^(O)breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God ^(P)his own Father, ^(Q)making himself equal with God.