Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for going up to worship.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ¹⁹ Zedekiah did what the Lord considered evil, as Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰ The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of his sight.

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(A)

25 On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army. They set up camp and built dirt ramps around the city walls. ² The blockade of the city lasted until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth ^[a] month, the famine in the city became so severe that the common people had no food.

⁴ The enemy broke through the city walls that night. All Judah’s soldiers left on the road of the gate between the two walls beside the king’s garden. While the Babylonians were attacking the city from all sides, the king took the road to the plain ⌞of Jericho⌟. ⁵ The Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the plain of Jericho. His entire army had deserted him. ⁶ The Babylonians captured the king, brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and passed sentence on him. ⁷ They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons as he watched, and then they blinded Zedekiah. They put him in bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the guard and an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. Every important building was burned down. ¹⁰ The entire Babylonian army that was with the captain of the guard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.

¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, captured the few people left in the city, those who surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. ¹² The captain of the guard left some of the poorest people in the land to work in the vineyards and on the farms.

¹³ The Babylonians broke apart the bronze pillars of the Lord’s temple, the stands, and the bronze pool in the Lord’s temple. They shipped the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They took the pots, shovels, snuffers, dishes, and all the bronze utensils used in the temple service. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard took all of the incense burners and bowls that were made of gold or silver. ¹⁶ The bronze from the two pillars, the pool, and the stands that Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple couldn’t be weighed. ¹⁷ One pillar was 27 feet high and had a bronze capital on it that was 4½ feet high. The filigree and the pomegranates around the capital were all made of bronze. The second pillar and its filigree were the same.

¹⁸ The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the 3 doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city he also took an army commander, 5 men who had access to the king whom he found in the city, the scribe who was in charge of the militia, and 60 of the common people whom he found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon executed them at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So the people of Judah were captives when they left their land.

²⁰ But now Christ has come back from the dead. He is the very first person of those who have died to come back to life. ²¹ Since a man brought death, a man also brought life back from death. ²² As everyone dies because of Adam, so also everyone will be made alive because of Christ. ²³ This will happen to each person in his own turn. Christ is the first, then at his coming, those who belong to him ⌞will be made alive⌟. ²⁴ Then the end will come. Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father as he destroys every ruler, authority, and power.

²⁵ Christ must rule until God has put every enemy under his control. ²⁶ The last enemy he will destroy is death. ²⁷ Clearly, God has put everything under Christ’s authority. When God says that everything has been put under Christ’s authority, this clearly excludes God, since God has put everything under Christ’s authority. ²⁸ But when God puts everything under Christ’s authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, since God had put everything under the Son’s authority. Then God will be in control of everything.

²⁹ However, people are baptized because the dead ⌞will come back to life⌟. What will they do? If the dead can’t come back to life, why do people get baptized as if they can ⌞come back to life⌟?

³⁰ Why are we constantly putting ourselves in danger? ³¹ Brothers and sisters, I swear to you on my pride in you which Christ Jesus our Lord has given me: I face death every day. ³² If I have fought with wild animals in Ephesus, what have I gained according to the way people look at things? If the dead are not brought back to life, “Let’s eat and drink because tomorrow we’re going to die!” ³³ Don’t let anyone deceive you. Associating with bad people will ruin decent people. ³⁴ Come back to the right point of view, and stop sinning. Some people don’t know anything about God. You should be ashamed of yourselves.