Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁴ Tzidkiyahu summoned and had Yirmeyahu brought to him through the third entry in the house of Adonai. Then the king said to Yirmeyahu, “I want to ask you something; don’t hide anything from me.” ¹⁵ Yirmeyahu said to Tzidkiyahu, “If I do say it to you, won’t you have me put to death? And if I give you counsel, you won’t listen to me.” ¹⁶ So Tzidkiyahu swore secretly to Yirmeyahu, “As Adonai lives, who gave us our lives, I will not put you to death; nor will I hand you over to these men who want you put to death.”

¹⁷ Then Yirmeyahu said to Tzidkiyahu, “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘If you will go out and surrender to the king of Bavel’s officers, then you will stay alive — this city will not be burned down; and you and your family will live. ¹⁸ But if you will not go out to the king of Bavel’s officers, then this city will be handed over to the Kasdim; they will burn it to the ground; and you will not escape from them.’” ¹⁹ Tzidkiyahu the king said to Yirmeyahu, “I am afraid of the Judeans who deserted to the Kasdim. The Kasdim might hand me over to them, and they would mistreat me.” ²⁰ Yirmeyahu answered, “They won’t hand you over. I beg you, listen to the voice of Adonai concerning what I’m telling you about; then it will go well with you, and you will live. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, then this is the word Adonai has shown me: ²² all the women remaining in the king of Y’hudah’s palace will be brought out to the king of Bavel’s officers, and those women will taunt you:

²³ They will bring all your women and children out to the Kasdim, and you will not escape from them. Rather, you will be captured by the king of Bavel, and you will cause this city to be burned to the ground.”

²⁴ Tzidkiyahu said to Yirmeyahu, “Don’t tell anyone what you just said, or you will die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king; don’t hide it from us, or we will put you to death, and also what the king said to you,’ ²⁶ then tell them, ‘I presented my request to the king that he would not make me return to Y’honatan’s house, to die there.’” ²⁷ All the officials did come to Yirmeyahu and asked him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they stopped speaking with him, since the matter had not been reported.

²⁸ Yirmeyahu remained in the guards’ quarters until the day Yerushalayim was captured; he was there when Yerushalayim was captured.

6 How dare one of you with a complaint against another go to court before pagan judges and not before God’s people? ² Don’t you know that God’s people are going to judge the universe? If you are going to judge the universe, are you incompetent to judge these minor matters? ³ Don’t you know that we will judge angels, not to mention affairs of everyday life? ⁴ So if you require judgments about matters of everyday life, why do you put them in front of men who have no standing in the Messianic Community? ⁵ I say, shame on you! Can it be that there isn’t one person among you wise enough to be able to settle a dispute between brothers? ⁶ Instead, a brother brings a lawsuit against another brother, and that before unbelievers!

⁷ Actually, if you are bringing lawsuits against each other, it is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves wrong and cheat; and you do it to your own brothers! ⁹ Don’t you know that unrighteous people will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t delude yourselves — people who engage in sex before marriage, who worship idols, who engage in sex after marriage with someone other than their spouse, who engage in active or passive homosexuality, ¹⁰ who steal, who are greedy, who get drunk, who assail people with contemptuous language, who rob — none of them will share in the Kingdom of God. ¹¹ Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.