Isaiah 29:13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 The Lord said:
Because these people draw near with their mouths
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote,(A)
Mark 7:2-13
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2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,[a] thus observing the tradition of the elders,(A) 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash,[b] and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.[c])(B) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?”(C) 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;(D)
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”(E)
9 Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!(F) 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’(G) 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God[d]),(H) 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”
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Ezekiel 33:31-33
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31 They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they will not obey them. For flattery is on their lips, but their heart is set on their gain.[a](A) 32 To them you are like a singer of love songs,[b] one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; they hear what you say, but they will not do it. 33 When this comes—and come it will!—then they shall know that a prophet has been among them.(B)
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Jeremiah 12:2
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2 You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and bring forth fruit;
you are near in their mouths
yet far from their hearts.(A)
Matthew 15:2-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.”(A) 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said,[a] ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’(B) 5 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’[b] then that person need not honor the father.[c](C) 6 So, for the sake of your tradition, you nullify the word[d] of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;(D)
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”(E)
Jeremiah 3:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but only in pretense, says the Lord.(A)
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Isaiah 58:2-3
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2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.[a](A)
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
and oppress all your workers.(B)
Footnotes
- 58.2 Or they delight to draw near to God
Proverbs 30:6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar.(A)
Colossians 2:22
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22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(A)
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Isaiah 48:1-2
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God the Creator and Redeemer
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel
and who came forth from the loins[a] of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel
but not in truth or right.(A)
2 For they call themselves after the holy city
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of hosts is his name.(B)
Footnotes
- 48.1 Cn: Heb waters
Jeremiah 42:2-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Be good enough to listen to our plea, and pray to the Lord your God for us—for all this remnant. For there are only a few of us left out of many, as your eyes can see.(A) 3 Let the Lord your God show us where we should go and what we should do.”(B) 4 The prophet Jeremiah said to them, “Very well: I am going to pray to the Lord your God as you request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you.”(C)
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Jeremiah 5:2
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2 Although they say, “As the Lord lives,”
yet they swear falsely.(A)
Jeremiah 42:20
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20 that you have made a fatal mistake. For you yourselves sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us, and we will do it.’
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2 Chronicles 29:1-31
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Reign of Hezekiah
29 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.(A) 2 He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done.(B)
The Temple Cleansed
3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.(C) 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. 5 He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place.(D) 6 For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God; they have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the dwelling of the Lord and turned their backs.(E) 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not offered incense or made burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.(F) 9 Our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.(G) 10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us.(H) 11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to minister to him and to be his ministers and offer incense.”(I)
12 Then the Levites arose, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;(J) 13 and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.(K) 16 The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took them and carried them out to the Wadi Kidron. 17 They began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord; then for eight days they sanctified the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.(L) 18 Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the rows of bread and all its utensils. 19 All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded during his reign when he was faithless, we have restored and sanctified; see, they are in front of the altar of the Lord.”(M)
Temple Worship Restored
20 Then King Hezekiah rose early, assembled the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the descendants of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord.(N) 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was dashed against the altar; they also slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was dashed against the altar.(O) 23 Then the male goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly; they laid their hands on them,(P) 24 and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood at the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.(Q)
25 He stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of the prophet Nathan, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets.(R) 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets.(S) 27 Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of King David of Israel.(T) 28 The whole assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29 When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped.(U) 30 King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of the seer Asaph. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to the Lord; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” The assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.(V)
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Psalm 17:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 17
Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors
A Prayer of David.
1 Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
Isaiah 10:6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.