Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Life Is Short

For the director of music. For Jeduthun [^CLevitical musician; 1 Chr. 16:41–42; 25:1, 6; 2 Chr. 5:12]. A psalm of David.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to ·explore [spy on] Canaan and said, “Go through ·southern Canaan [the Negev] and then into the mountains. ¹⁸ See what the land looks like. Are the people who live there strong or weak? Are there a few or many? ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What about the towns they live in—are they ·open like camps [unwalled], or do they have walls? ²⁰ What about the soil? Is it ·fertile [rich] or poor? ·Are there trees there [^LDoes it have trees or not]? ·Try to [or Be courageous and] bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (It was the season for the first grapes.)

²¹ So they went up and ·explored [spied on] the land, from the ·Desert [Wilderness] of Zin all the way to Rehob by Lebo Hamath. ²² They went through the ·southern area [Negev] to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai [Josh. 15:14; Judg. 1:10; 1 Chr. 9:17], the descendants of Anak lived [Deut. 1:28; 2:10–11, 21; 9:2; Josh. 11:21–22]. (The city of Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ In the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch of a grapevine that had one bunch of grapes on it and carried that branch on a pole between two of them. They also got some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshcol [^C“Bunch”], because the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] cut off the bunch of grapes there. ²⁵ After forty days of ·exploring [spying on] the land, the men returned to the camp.

²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and all the ·Israelites [^Lcommunity/congregation/assembly of the sons/^Tchildren of Israel] at Kadesh, in the ·Desert [Wilderness] of Paran. The men reported to them and showed ·everybody [^Lall the community/congregation/assembly] the fruit from the land. ²⁷ They ·told [reported to] Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us, and it is a ·fertile land [^Lland flowing with milk and honey; Ex. 3:8]! Here is some of its fruit.

Stories of Mustard Seed and Yeast^(A)

¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “What is God’s kingdom like? What can I compare it with? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the ·wild birds [^Lbirds of the sky] build nests in its branches.”

²⁰ Jesus said again, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? ²¹ It is like ·yeast [leaven] that a woman took and ·hid [mixed] in a large tub [^CGreek: three sata; about fifty pounds] of flour until ·it made all the dough rise [^Lthe whole was leavened; Matt. 13:33].”