Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
81 The Lord makes us strong! Sing praises! Sing to Israel’s God!
10 For it was I, Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Only test me![a] Open your mouth wide and see if I won’t fill it. You will receive every blessing you can use!
11 “But no, my people won’t listen. Israel doesn’t want me around. 12 So I am letting them go their blind and stubborn way, living according to their own desires.
13 “But oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths! 14 How quickly then I would subdue her enemies! How soon my hands would be upon her foes! 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; their desolation would last forever. 16 But he would feed you with the choicest foods. He would satisfy you with honey for the taking.”[b]
2 Again the Lord spoke to me and said:
2 Go and shout this in Jerusalem’s streets: This is what the Lord says! I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren deserts. 3 In those days Israel was a holy people, the first of my children.[a] All who harmed them were counted deeply guilty, and great evil fell on anyone who touched them.
14 Why has Israel become a nation of slaves? Why is she captured and led far away?
15 I see great armies marching on Jerusalem with mighty shouts[a] to destroy her and leave her cities in ruins, burned and desolate. 16 I see the armies of Egypt rising against her, marching from their cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes to utterly destroy Israel’s glory and power. 17 And you have brought this on yourselves by rebelling against the Lord your God when he wanted to lead you and show you the way!
18 What have you gained by your alliances with Egypt and with Assyria? 19 Your own wickedness will punish you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to rebel against the Lord your God, fearlessly forsaking him, says the Lord Almighty. 20 Long ago you shook off my yoke and broke away from my ties. Defiant, you would not obey me. On every hill and under every tree you’ve bowed low before idols.
21 How could this happen? How could this be? For when I planted you, I chose my seed so carefully—the very best. Why have you become this degenerate race of evil men? 22 No amount of soap or lye can make you clean. You are stained with guilt that cannot ever be washed away. I see it always before me, the Lord God says.
20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, brought them to Jesus and respectfully asked a favor.
21 “What is your request?” he asked. She replied, “In your Kingdom, will you let my two sons sit on two thrones[a] next to yours?”
22 But Jesus told her, “You don’t know what you are asking!” Then he turned to James and John and asked them, “Are you able to drink from the terrible cup I am about to drink from?”
“Yes,” they replied, “we are able!”
23 “You shall indeed drink from it,” he told them. “But I have no right to say who will sit on the thrones next to mine. Those places are reserved for the persons my Father selects.”
24 The other ten disciples were indignant when they heard what James and John had asked for.
25 But Jesus called them together and said, “Among the heathen, kings are tyrants and each minor official lords it over those beneath him. 26 But among you it is quite different. Anyone wanting to be a leader among you must be your servant. 27 And if you want to be right at the top, you must serve like a slave. 28 Your attitude[b] must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.