Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of degrees.

126 When Jehovah turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

² Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing: then said they among the nations, Jehovah hath done great things for them.

³ Jehovah hath done great things for us; [and] we are joyful.

⁴ Turn our captivity, O Jehovah, as the streams in the south.

⁵ They that sow in tears shall reap with rejoicing:

⁶ He goeth forth and weepeth, bearing seed for scattering; he cometh again with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves.

²¹ And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Seize and take yourselves lambs for your families, and kill the passover.

²² And take a bunch of hyssop, and dip [it] in the blood that is in the bason, and smear the lintel and the two door-posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

²³ And Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door-posts, Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite [you].

²⁴ And ye shall observe this as an ordinance for thee and for thy sons for ever.

²⁵ And it shall come to pass, when ye are come into the land that Jehovah will give you, as he has promised, that ye shall keep this service.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean ye by this service?

²⁷ that ye shall say, It is a sacrifice of passover to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

⁴⁵ Many therefore of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he had done, believed on him;

⁴⁶ but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷ The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many signs.

⁴⁸ If we let him thus alone, all will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

⁴⁹ But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, Ye know nothing

⁵⁰ nor consider that it is profitable for you that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish.

⁵¹ But this he did not say of himself; but, being high priest that year, prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation;

⁵² and not for the nation only, but that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

⁵³ From that day therefore they took counsel that they might kill him.

⁵⁴ Jesus therefore walked no longer openly among the Jews, but went away thence into the country near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, and there he sojourned with the disciples.

⁵⁵ But the passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves.

⁵⁶ They sought therefore Jesus, and said among themselves, standing in the temple, What do ye think? that he will not come to the feast?

⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment that if any one knew where he was, he should make it known, that they might take him.