Isaiah 59:12-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 For our transgressions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
and we know our iniquities:(A)
13 transgressing and denying the Lord
and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.(B)
14 Justice is turned back,
and deliverance stands at a distance,
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.(C)
15 Truth is lacking,
and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.(D)
16 He saw that there was no one
and was appalled that there was no one to intervene,
so his own arm brought him victory,
and his righteousness upheld him.(E)
17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing
and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.(F)
18 According to their deeds, so will he repay
wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render requital.(G)
19 So those in the west shall fear the name of the Lord,
and those in the east, his glory,
for he will come like a pent-up stream
that the wind of the Lord drives on.(H)
20 And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord.(I)
Amos 8:4-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(A)
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(B)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(C)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(D)
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?(E)
9 On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.(F)
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.(G)
11 The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land,
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.(H)
12 They shall wander from sea to sea
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.(I)
13 On that day the beautiful young women and the young men
shall faint for thirst.(J)
14 Those who swear by Ashimah of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, O Dan,”
and, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives”—
they shall fall and never rise again.(K)
Ephesians 5:15-6:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 Be careful, then, how you live,[a] not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil.(A) 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.(B) 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,(C) 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,(D) 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,(E) 21 being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The Christian Household
22 Wives, be subject[b] to your husbands as to the Lord,(F) 23 for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.(G) 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so that she may be holy and without blemish.(H) 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body.[c](I) 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”(J) 32 This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. 33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect[d] her husband.
Children and Parents
6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord,[e] for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise(K)— 3 “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.(L)
Slaves and Masters
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect[f] and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ,(M) 6 not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul. 7 Render service with enthusiasm, as for the Lord and not for humans, 8 knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are enslaved or free.
9 And, masters,[g] do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Lord[h] in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.(N)
John 7:14-36
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. 15 The Jews were astonished at it, saying, “How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?”(A) 16 Then Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me.(B) 17 Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.(C) 18 Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing unjust in him.(D)
19 “Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?”(E) 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”(F) 21 Jesus answered them, “I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. 22 Because of this Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.(G) 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?(H) 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”(I)
Is This the Christ?
25 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?[a] 27 Yet we know where this man is from, but when the Messiah[b] comes no one will know where he is from.”(J) 28 Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him.(K) 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”(L) 30 Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come.(M) 31 Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, “When the Messiah[c] comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?”[d](N)
Officers Are Sent to Arrest Jesus
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering such things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.(O) 34 You will search for me, but you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come.”(P) 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?(Q) 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will search for me, but you will not find me’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
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