Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for old age

Zedekiah rules Judah as king

¹¹ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king.^[a] He ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. ¹² He did things that the Lord said were evil. The prophet Jeremiah spoke the Lord's message to Zedekiah. But Zedekiah was too proud to listen to him. ¹³ King Nebuchadnezzar had made Zedekiah promise in God's name that he would be faithful to Nebuchadnezzar. But Zedekiah turned against Nebuchadnezzar. He was very proud and he refused to change. He refused to turn back to the Lord, Israel's God. ¹⁴ All the leaders of the priests and the people also turned away from the Lord more and more. They did the same disgusting sins that the people in other nations did. They made the Lord's temple an unclean place. That was the place that the Lord himself had chosen as his special home in Jerusalem.

Babylon's army attacks Jerusalem

¹⁵ The Lord sent his servants many times to warn his people. He wanted to be kind to them. He wanted to keep his temple safe. ¹⁶ But they laughed at the men that God sent to them. They did not think that his messages were important. They insulted his prophets. Finally, the Lord became very angry with his people. Nothing could stop him from punishing them.

¹⁷ Then the Lord sent the king of Babylon to attack them.^[b] His soldiers killed Jerusalem's young men in the temple, where they thought that they would be safe. They were not kind to anybody, the young men or women, or even the very old people. God put all the people of Jerusalem under the king of Babylon's power.

¹⁸ The king took away to Babylon all the things that were in God's temple. He took everything, big things and small things. He took all the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple. He also took the valuable things of the king and his officers. He took them all away to Babylon. ¹⁹ Nebuchadnezzar's men destroyed the Lord's temple with fire. They knocked down the walls around Jerusalem. They burned all the important buildings. They destroyed all the valuable things in the city.

²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylon all the people in Jerusalem who were still alive. They worked as slaves for him and for his sons until the kingdom of Persia became powerful. ²¹ In this way, the Lord's message that his prophet Jeremiah had spoken became true. The land of Judah was empty for 70 years. It was finally able to rest, like the rest on a Sabbath day.^[c]

⁴³ The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He met Philip, and Jesus said to Philip, ‘Follow me.’ ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, came from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip went to find Nathanael. He told Nathanael, ‘We have found the man that Moses wrote about in the book of God's Law. The prophets also wrote about him. He is Jesus, who is Joseph's son, from Nazareth.’ ⁴⁶ Nathanael said, ‘I did not think that anything good could come from Nazareth!’ Philip replied, ‘Come and see.’

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael, who was coming towards him. Jesus said, ‘Here is a completely honest man. That is what a person from Israel should really be like.’ ⁴⁸ Nathanael asked, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you before Philip asked you to come. I saw you when you were under the fig tree.’ ⁴⁹ Nathanael said, ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.’ ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, ‘I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. Now you believe me because I told you that. But you will see much greater things than that.’ ⁵¹ And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you this: You will see heaven open. You will see God's angels. They will be going up and they will be coming down on the Son of Man.’^[a]