Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

MEM

The people want to kill Jeremiah

26 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah at the time when Josiah's son Jehoiakim became king of Judah. ² The Lord said, ‘Go and stand in the yard of the Lord's temple. People come from all the towns in Judah to worship the Lord in his temple. Speak to them. Tell them everything that I command you to say. Do not leave out even one word. ³ Perhaps they will listen to what you say. Then they may stop living in the evil way that they do now. If they change how they live, I will not punish them for their sins, as I had promised to do. ⁴ Tell them that the Lord says this: “You must obey me. I have given you my laws that tell you how you should live. ⁵ You must listen to the messages that my servants the prophets tell you. I have sent them to speak to you many times, but you have not listened to them. ⁶ So if you do not obey me, I will destroy this temple, as I destroyed Shiloh. People of all the other nations on earth will use the name of this city as a curse.” ’^[a]

⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah's message in the Lord's temple. ⁸ Jeremiah said everything that the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people. Just as he finished, some of the priests, the prophets, and the people took hold of him. They shouted, ‘You deserve to die! ⁹ You should not say that you have the Lord's authority to prophesy such terrible things! You cannot say that this temple will become like Shiloh. You cannot say that this city will become a heap of stones where nobody lives!’

The whole crowd of people pushed together around Jeremiah in the yard of the temple.

¹⁰ Some of Judah's officers heard about what was happening. So they left the king's palace and they went up to the Lord's temple. They went to the gate of the temple that is called ‘The New Gate’. They sat in their places as judges near the gate.^{[b] 11} Then the priests and the prophets told the officers and all the people why they accused Jeremiah. They said, ‘This man deserves to die because he has prophesied trouble against this city. You yourselves have heard what he said!’

¹² Then Jeremiah said to all the officers and to all the people, ‘The Lord sent me to say all the things that you have heard me speak. He told me to prophesy against this temple and against this city. ¹³ Now you must change the way that you have been living. You must do what is good and right. Obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will not punish you as he said that he would do. ¹⁴ As for me, I am under your authority. Do with me whatever you think is good and right. ¹⁵ But you should know this: If you punish me with death, you will bring great trouble on yourselves, this city, and everyone who lives here. You will be guilty of murder, because I have not done anything wrong. The Lord has sent me to speak all these words for you to hear. That is the truth!’

²² So Paul stood up in front of the important officers of the city. He said to them, ‘People of Athens. I see that you have many gods. ²³ I have walked in the streets of your city. I see that you have built many special places where you worship your gods. I saw one altar with a notice on it. The notice said, “To the god that we do not know.” This shows that you want to worship a god that you do not know. Now I will tell you clearly about who this God is.

²⁴ The true God made the earth and everything that is in it. He rules everything in the earth and in heaven. He does not live in any buildings that people have made for him. ²⁵ People make things to give to God. But God does not need anything like that. It is God himself who causes everyone to live. He gives them everything that they need. ²⁶ God first made one man. From that one man he made all the different groups of people. He caused them to live in different places all over the world. He decided where each group of people should live. He also decided how long they should live in each place. ²⁷ God did all this so that people would want to know him. They would look carefully for him and perhaps they would find him. Really, God is near to each of us. ²⁸ Someone said this: “Because God gives us life, we are alive. Because of him, we can move about. Because of him we can be who we are.” One of your writers has also said, “We too are God's children.”

²⁹ So, because we are God's children, we should not think that he is a thing like an idol. Clever people use gold or silver or stone to make images of gods. But God is not like these things that people choose to make for themselves. ³⁰ In past times people did not know the true things about God. Because of this, God did not punish them. But now God tells people everywhere, “Stop doing bad things and turn to me!” ³¹ God has already chosen one special day. On that day he will judge everyone in the world in a completely right way. He has chosen a man who will do this for him. He has shown clearly to everyone who that man is. He showed it like this: People killed that man. But God caused him to live again.’

³² Paul had said, ‘God caused that man to live again.’ When the people heard this, some of them laughed at him. But other people said to Paul, ‘We want you to tell us more about this on another day.’ ³³ So then Paul left the meeting of the important officers of the city. ³⁴ Some of the people who had heard Paul's message joined his group. They believed the good news about Jesus. One of these believers was a man called Dionysius. He belonged to the group of important officers. A woman called Damaris also became a believer. Several other people also believed Paul's message about Jesus.