Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁸ Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah. ¹⁹ He did what was evil from the perspective of Adonai, following the example of everything Y’hoyakim had done. ²⁰ And it was because of Adonai’s anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence.

Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel;

25 so in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army. He set up camp against it and built siege towers against it on every side. ² The city remained under siege into the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu.

³ On the ninth day of the [fourth] month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land, ⁴ they broke through into the city. All the soldiers [fled] by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden. Because the Kasdim were surrounding the city, the king took the route through the ‘Aravah. ⁵ But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook him on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him. ⁶ Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, where they passed judgment on him. ⁷ They slaughtered his sons before his eyes. Then they put out Tzidkiyahu’s eyes, bound him in chains and carried him off to Bavel.

⁸ In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N’vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, N’vuzar’adan, the commander of the guard and an officer of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim. ⁹ He burned down the house of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim — every notable person’s house he burned to the ground. ¹⁰ The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down the walls of Yerushalayim on every side. ¹¹ N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard then deported the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people. ¹² But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.

¹³ The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns in the house of Adonai, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of Adonai, and carried their bronze to Bavel. ¹⁴ They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, pans, and all the bronze articles that had been used for worship. ¹⁵ The commander of the guard took the censers, the sprinkling bowls, everything made of gold and everything made of silver. ¹⁶ The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea and the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of Adonai, was more than could be weighed. ¹⁷ The height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; on it was a capital of bronze five-and-a-quarter feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with netting.

¹⁸ The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S’rayah the chief cohen, Z’kharyah the second-ranking cohen and three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, five close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander’s secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found in the city. ²⁰ N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah. ²¹ There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y’hudah was carried away captive out of his land.

²⁰ But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. ²¹ For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. ²² For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming; ²⁴ then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power. ²⁵ For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be done away with will be death, ²⁷ for “He put everything in subjection under his feet.”^[a] But when it says that “everything” has been subjected, obviously the word does not include God, who is himself the one subjecting everything to the Messiah. ²⁸ Now when everything has been subjected to the Son, then he will subject himself to God, who subjected everything to him; so that God may be everything in everyone.

²⁹ Were it otherwise, what would the people accomplish who are immersed on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not actually raised, why are people immersed for them? ³⁰ For that matter, we ourselves — why do we keep facing danger hour by hour? ³¹ Brothers, by the right to be proud which the Messiah Yeshua our Lord gives me, I solemnly tell you that I die every day. ³² If my fighting with “wild beasts” in Ephesus was done merely on a human basis, what do I gain by it? If dead people are not raised, we might as well live by the saying, “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”^{[b] 33} Don’t be fooled. “Bad company ruins good character.” ³⁴ Come to your senses! Live righteously and stop sinning! There are some people who lack knowledge of God — I say this to your shame.