Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
71 Lord, you are my refuge! Don’t let me down! 2 Save me from my enemies, for you are just! Rescue me! Bend down your ear and listen to my plea and save me. 3 Be to me a great protecting Rock, where I am always welcome, safe from all attacks. For you have issued the order to save me. 4 Rescue me, O God, from these unjust and cruel men. 5 O Lord, you alone are my hope; I’ve trusted you from childhood. 6 Yes, you have been with me from birth and have helped me constantly—no wonder I am always praising you!
20 There is no use now in burning sweet incense from Sheba before me! Keep your expensive perfumes! I cannot accept your offerings; they have no sweet fragrance for me. 21 I will make an obstacle course of the pathway of my people; fathers and sons shall be frustrated; neighbors and friends shall collapse together. 22 The Lord God says: See the armies marching from the north—a great nation is rising against you. 23 They are a cruel, merciless people, fully armed, mounted for war. The noise of their army is like a roaring sea.
24 We have heard the fame of their armies, and we are weak with fright. Fright and pain have gripped us like that of women in travail. 25 Don’t go out to the fields! Don’t travel the roads! For the enemy is everywhere, ready to kill; we are terrorized at every turn.
26 O Jerusalem, pride of my people, put on mourning clothes and sit in ashes; weep bitterly as for an only son. For suddenly the destroying armies will be upon you.
27 Jeremiah, I have made you an assayer of metals that you may test this my people and determine their value. Listen to what they are saying and watch what they are doing. 28 Are they not the worst of rebels, full of evil talk against the Lord? They are insolent as brass, hard and cruel as iron. 29 The bellows blow fiercely; the refining fire grows hotter, but it can never cleanse them, for there is no pureness in them to bring out. Why continue the process longer? All is dross. No matter how hot the fire, they continue in their wicked ways. 30 I must label them “Impure, Rejected Silver,” and I have discarded them.
17 Now they traveled through the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was Paul’s custom, he went there to preach, and for three Sabbaths in a row he opened the Scriptures to the people, 3 explaining the prophecies about the sufferings of the Messiah and his coming back to life, and proving that Jesus is the Messiah. 4 Some who listened were persuaded and became converts—including a large number of godly Greek men and also many important women of the city.[a]
5 But the Jewish leaders were jealous and incited some worthless fellows from the streets to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, planning to take Paul and Silas to the City Council for punishment.
6 Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers, and took them before the Council instead. “Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city,” they shouted, 7 “and Jason has let them into his home. They are all guilty of treason, for they claim another king, Jesus, instead of Caesar.”
8-9 The people of the city, as well as the judges, were concerned at these reports and let them go only after they had posted bail.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.