Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
99 The Lord rules as king.
Let the people tremble.
He is enthroned over the angels.[a]
Let the earth quake.
2 The Lord is mighty in Zion.
He is high above all people.
3 Let them give thanks to your great and fearful name.
He is holy!
4 The king’s strength is that he loves justice.
You have established fairness.
You have done what is fair and right for Jacob.
5 Highly honor the Lord our God.
Bow down at his footstool.
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests.
Samuel was among those who prayed to him.
They called to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from a column of smoke.
They obeyed his written instructions and the laws that he gave them.
8 O Lord, our God, you answered them.
You showed them that you are a forgiving God
and that you are a God who punishes their ⌞sinful⌟ deeds.
9 Highly honor the Lord our God.
Bow at his holy mountain.
The Lord our God is holy!
Eli’s Family Condemned
22 Now, Eli was very old, and he had heard everything that his sons were doing to all Israel and that they were sleeping with the women who served at the gate of the tent of meeting. 23 So he asked them, “Why are you doing such things? I hear about your wicked ways from all these people. 24 Sons, the report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading isn’t good! 25 If one person sins against another, God will take care of him. However, when a person sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” But they wouldn’t listen to their father’s warning—the Lord wanted to kill them.
26 The boy Samuel continued to grow and gained the favor of the Lord and the people.
27 Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: I revealed myself to your ancestors when they were under Pharaoh’s control in Egypt. 28 I chose ⌞one of your ancestors⌟ out of all the tribes of Israel to serve as my priest, to sacrifice burnt offerings on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod in my presence. And I gave your ancestors the right to keep portions of the sacrifices that the people of Israel burned on the altar. 29 Why do you show no respect for my sacrifices and grain offerings that I have commanded people to make in my dwelling place? Why do you honor your sons more than me by making yourselves fat on the best of all the sacrifices offered by my people Israel?
30 “Therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares: I certainly thought that your family and your father’s family would always live in my presence.
“But now the Lord declares: I promise that I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be considered insignificant. 31 The time is coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that no one will grow old in your family. 32 You will see distress in my dwelling place. In spite of the good that I do for Israel, no one in your family will live to an old age. 33 Any man in your family whom I do not remove from my altar will have his eyes fail, and he [a] will be heartbroken. And all your descendants will die in the prime of life. 34 What is going to happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you: Both of them will die on the same day. 35 Then I will appoint a faithful priest to serve me. He will do everything I want him to do. I will give him faithful descendants, and he will always live as my anointed one. 36 Then anyone who is left from your household will bow down in front of him to get a coin or a loaf of bread and say, ‘Please appoint me to one of the priestly classes so that I may eat a piece of bread.’ ”
Jesus Cures a Man at the Bethesda Pool
5 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.
2 Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It had five porches. 3 Under these porches a large number of sick people—people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed—used to lie.[a] 5 One man, who had been sick for 38 years, was lying there. 6 Jesus saw the man lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time. So Jesus asked the man, “Would you like to get well?”
7 The sick man answered Jesus, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told the man, “Get up, pick up your cot, and walk.” 9 The man immediately became well, picked up his cot, and walked.
That happened on a day of rest—a holy day. 10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is a day of rest—a holy day. You’re not allowed to carry your cot today.”
11 The man replied, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my cot and walk.”
12 The Jews asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who Jesus was. (Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd.)
14 Later, Jesus met the man in the temple courtyard and told him, “You’re well now. Stop sinning so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
15 The man went back to the Jews and told them that Jesus was the man who had made him well.
The Son Is Equal to the Father
16 The Jews began to persecute Jesus because he kept healing people on the day of rest—a holy day. 17 Jesus replied to them, “My Father is working right now, and so am I.”
18 His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of rest—a holy day, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.
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