Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The King who brings peace

11 A descendant of Jesse will appear, like a new branch that grows from a tree stump. The roots of the tree will give new fruit!^[a]

² The Spirit of the Lord will be with him.

³ To obey the Lord will make him very happy. He will not judge people because of what he sees with his eyes. He will not judge them because of what he hears about them with his ears.

⁴ But he will judge poor people with true justice. He will decide to do what is right for all the helpless people. He will have authority everywhere in the land. The words that he speaks will bring death to wicked people. ⁵ He will wear justice like a belt round his clothes. He will always be honest and true.

⁶ When he is king, wolves will live beside lambs! Leopards will lie down with young goats! Young cows and lions will feed together, and a young child will take care of them!

⁷ Cows and bears will feed together. Even their children will lie down side by side. Lions will eat grass, as cows do.

⁸ If a baby plays near the hole where a snake lives, he will be safe. A young child may even put his hand into the hole of a dangerous snake.

⁹ Nothing will hurt or destroy anything else anywhere on my holy mountain. Instead, people will know the Lord all over the earth, as water fills the whole sea.

Korah and other people turn against Moses

16 Then Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, decided to speak against Moses. Eliab's sons, Dathan and Abiram, and Peleth's son, On, who were descendants of Reuben, were with him. ² Together with 250 leaders of the Israelites, they all turned against Moses. Those were famous men that the people had chosen as their leaders. ³ They all came to Moses and Aaron and they said, ‘All the Israelites are special. The Lord has chosen all of us and he is with us all. So you should not say that you are better than the rest of the Lord's people.’

⁴ When Moses heard that, he threw himself onto the ground. ⁵ Moses said to Korah and to all the other men, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will show us who is truly special to him. He will show us who really belongs to him. He will make the person that he chooses come near to him. ⁶ Now do this: Get some pots for yourselves, Korah and your group of friends. ⁷ Put fire and incense in them, to burn in front of the Lord tomorrow. Then the Lord will choose the man who is holy. You make yourselves too important, you descendants of Levi!’

⁸ Then Moses said to Korah, ‘Listen, you descendants of Levi. ⁹ The God of Israel has caused you Levites to be separate from all the other Israelites. He has brought you near to himself, to work in the Lord's Tent. He has chosen you to stand in front of all the people to serve them. But it seems that this is not enough for you. ¹⁰ He has brought you, Korah, and all the other descendants of Levi near to himself. But it seems that you want to be priests as well. ¹¹ You are not only speaking bad words against Aaron. You and all your group are complaining against the Lord!’

¹² Then Moses called Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, to come to him. But they said, ‘No, we will not come. ¹³ You have brought us out of a country where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. You have brought us here, where we will die in the desert. But it seems that that is not enough for you. It seems that you want to be our master as well! ¹⁴ You have certainly not brought us into a land where there is plenty of food and drink. You have not given to us fields and vineyards, for us and for our descendants. You cannot deceive all these men. We will not come up to meet with you!’

¹⁵ Moses was angry. He said to the Lord, ‘Do not accept what these men offer to you. I did not take anything from them, not even one donkey! I did not do a wrong thing to any of them.’

¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, ‘Tomorrow, you and your men must come to the Tent of Meeting. You must come to stand in front of the Lord. Aaron will be there too. ¹⁷ Each of you must take a pot and you must put incense in it. You must put the pots on the altar in front of the Lord. That will be 250 pots. You yourself must do the same thing, as well as Aaron.’ ¹⁸ So each man took a pot. He put incense in it, and fire to burn it. They stood with Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁹ Korah brought all his group of people to stand against Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.

⁷ Remember your leaders, who taught God's message to you. Think about the way in which they have lived and the good things that they have done. They have trusted God, so you should have faith like they have.

⁸ Jesus Christ is always the same, yesterday, today and for ever. ⁹ Some people teach all kinds of strange new things.^[a] Do not let them lead you away from God's true message. It is good that God is very kind to us. That is what makes us strong inside ourselves. Rules about what foods we should eat do not make us strong like that. Those rules have never helped the people who tried to obey them.

¹⁰ Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that saves us. Jewish priests do not have the authority to receive anything from his sacrifice. ¹¹ In the old agreement, the leader of the priests brings the blood from the animal sacrifices into the Most Holy Place. He does that so that God will forgive the sins of the people. But they take the bodies of those animals away from there. They burn them outside the town.^{[b] 12} In the same way, Jesus also died outside the city.^[c] He died as a sacrifice on our behalf. His blood has made his people clean from their sins. ¹³ Jesus died like that in a place where people insulted him. So we must go out to that place too. We must be ready for people to insult us, as they insulted him. ¹⁴ Here on earth, we who are believers do not have a city that will always be our home. But we are waiting for God's city that will come.

¹⁵ So we should always praise God, because of what Jesus has done for us. We should say clearly that we trust Jesus. That is like our sacrifice which we offer to God all the time. ¹⁶ Remember to be kind to other people. Share with them the things that you have. God is happy with sacrifices like that.

¹⁷ Respect your leaders and obey them. They watch over your lives on God's behalf. God will check to see if they have done their work well. So respect them, and then they will be happy as they serve God. Do not say bad things against them, because that will never help you.