Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David wrote this song for Jeduthun, the leader of the music.

Life is short^[a]

¹⁷ Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan. He said to them, ‘Go north from here, through the Negev desert. Then continue to go north, into the place where there are hills. ¹⁸ Look at the land to see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether few people or many people live there. ¹⁹ See whether their land is good or bad. Look at the towns where the people live. See if they have strong walls or they are in the open. ²⁰ See whether the land is able to make good food grow there, or not. See whether there are forests that grow there. Then try to get some fruit from the land and bring it back here.’ (It was the time of year for the first grapes to be ready to eat.)

²¹ So the men went and they explored the land of Canaan. They started in the desert called Zin, and they continued to Rehob, near Lebo-Hamath. ²² When they had gone up through the Negev desert in the south of the land, they arrived at Hebron. That was where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were living. They had built Hebron seven years before the Egyptians built Zoan.

²³ Then the men came to the valley called Eshcol. They cut a branch which had one group of grapes on it. It was so large that two men carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some other fruits called pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ They called that valley ‘Eshcol’ because of the large group of grapes that the Israelites cut down there.

²⁵ The men returned after they had explored the land for 40 days.

The men bring news to Moses

²⁶ The men came back to Kadesh in the Paran desert. They brought their message to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelites there. They told them all about the land of Canaan and they showed its fruit to them. ²⁷ They said to Moses, ‘We went to look at the land where you sent us. It is certainly a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. This is some of its fruit.

Jesus tells stories about seeds and yeast

¹⁸ Then Jesus said to them, ‘I will tell you a story about the kingdom of God and what it is like. ¹⁹ It is like a very small seed of the plant called mustard. A man took this seed and he planted it in his garden. The seed grew and it became a tree. It was so big that birds came and made their nests among its branches.’

²⁰ Jesus then said, ‘Here is another example of what the kingdom of God is like. ²¹ It is like how yeast works. A woman took some of it and she mixed it into three large bowls of flour. Then the yeast went through all the flour so that it grew big.’