Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of ^[a]Jeremiah of Libnah.^{(A) 2} He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord like all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For all this came about in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the Lord, and [in the end] He cast them from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴ Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and they camped against it and built moveable towers and siege mounds all around it.^{(B) 5} So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.^{(C) 6} In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city was broken into, and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night [as Ezekiel prophesied] passing through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They fled by way of the Arabah (the Jordan Valley).^{(D) 8} But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and his entire army was scattered from him. ⁹ Then they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Syrian] land of Hamath [on the northern border of Israel], where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the princes of Judah at Riblah. ¹¹ Then the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon and there he put him in prison ^[b][in a mill] until the day of his death.^(E)

Message to Smyrna

⁸ “And to the angel (divine messenger) of the church in ^[a]Smyrna write:

“These are the words of the First and the Last [absolute Deity, the Son of God] who died and came to life [again]:^(A)

⁹ ‘I know your suffering and your poverty (but you are rich), and how you are blasphemed and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan [they are Jews only by blood, and do not believe and truly honor the God whom they claim to worship]. ¹⁰ Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. Be aware that the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested [in your faith], and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful to the point of death [if you must die for your faith], and I will give you the crown [consisting] of life.^{(B) 11} He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God] will not be hurt by the second death (^[b]the lake of fire).’^(C)