Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song of David for the dedication of the Temple.^[a]

¹⁸ The boy grew. One day the boy went out into the fields to see his father and the men cutting the grain. ¹⁹ The boy said to his father, “Oh, my head! My head hurts!”

The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother!”

²⁰ The servant took the boy to his mother. The boy sat on his mother’s lap until noon. Then he died.

The Woman Goes to See Elisha

²¹ The woman laid the boy on the bed of Elisha, the man of God. Then she shut the door to that room and went outside. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey. Then I will go quickly to get the man of God and come back.”

²³ The woman’s husband said, “Why would you want to go to the man of God today? It isn’t the New Moon or Sabbath day.”

She said, “Goodbye!”^[a]

²⁴ Then she put a saddle on a donkey and said to her servant, “Let’s go, and hurry! Go slow only when I tell you.”

²⁵ The woman went to Mount Carmel to get the man of God.

The man of God saw the Shunammite woman coming from far away and said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman! ²⁶ Please run now to meet her! Say to her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?’”

She answered, “Everything is all right.”^[b]

²⁷ But the Shunammite woman went up the hill to the man of God. She bowed down and touched Elisha’s feet. Gehazi came near to pull her away. But the man of God said to Gehazi, “Leave her alone! She’s very upset, and the Lord didn’t tell me about it. He hid this news from me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Sir, I never asked for a son. I told you, ‘Don’t trick me!’”

²⁹ Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to go. Take my walking stick and go! If you meet anyone along the way, don’t even stop to say hello to him. If anyone says hello to you, don’t answer. Put my walking stick on the child’s face.”

³⁰ But the child’s mother said, “I promise, as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave without you!”

So Elisha got up and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi arrived at the house before Elisha and the Shunammite woman. Gehazi laid the walking stick on the child’s face, but the child did not talk or show any sign that he heard anything. Then Gehazi came back to meet Elisha and said, “The child will not wake up!”

Help for God’s People in Judea

8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want to tell you what God’s grace has done in the churches in Macedonia. ² These believers have been tested by great troubles, and they are very poor. But their great joy caused them to be very generous in their giving. ³ I can tell you that they gave as much as they were able and even more than they could afford. No one told them to do this. It was their idea. ⁴ But they asked us again and again—they begged us to let them share in this service for God’s people. ⁵ And they gave in a way that we did not expect: They gave themselves to the Lord and to us before they gave their money. This is what God wants.

⁶ So we asked Titus to help you finish this special work of giving. He is the one who started this work. ⁷ You are rich in everything—in faith, in speaking ability, in knowledge, in the willingness to help, and in the love you learned from us. So now we want you to be rich in this work of giving too.