Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book I: Psalms 1–41
1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 For this reason the wicked
won’t stand up to the judgment,
nor will sinners
at the gathering of the righteous.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
2 (3) the great testings which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs and those great wonders. 3 (4) Nevertheless, to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear! 4 (5) I led you forty years in the desert. Neither the clothes on your body nor the shoes on your feet wore out. 5 (6) You didn’t eat bread, and you didn’t drink wine or other intoxicating liquor; this was so that you would know that ‘I am Adonai your God.’ (Maftir) 6 (7) When you arrived at this place, Sichon the king of Heshbon and ‘Og the king of Bashan advanced against us in battle, and we defeated them, 7 (8) took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Re’uveni, the Gadi and the M’nashi. 8 (9) Therefore, observe the words of this covenant and obey them; so that you can make everything you do prosper.
Haftarah Ki Tavo: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 60:1–22
B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Ki Tavo: Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:1–23; Luke 21:1–4; Acts 28:17–31; Romans 11:1–15
Parashah 51: Nitzavim (Standing) 29:9(10)–30:20
[In regular years read with Parashah 52, in leap years read separately]
9 (10) “Today you are standing, all of you, before Adonai your God — your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers — all the men of Isra’el, 10 (11) along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water. 11 (12) The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of Adonai your God and into his oath which Adonai your God is making with you today, (LY: ii) 12 (13) so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God — as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.
13 (14) “But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. 14 (15) Rather, I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today. (LY: iii) 15 (16) For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came directly through the nations you passed through; 16 (17) and you saw their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver and gold that they had with them. 17 (18) So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. 18 (19) If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although “dry,” [sinful,] will be added to the “watered” [righteous].’ 19 (20) But Adonai will not forgive him. Rather, the anger and jealousy of Adonai will blaze up against that person. Every curse written in this book will be upon him. Adonai will blot out his name from under heaven. 20 (21) Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Isra’el to experience what is bad in all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Torah.
34 “Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword! 35 For I have come to set
36 a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
so that a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.[a]
37 Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me. 38 And anyone who does not take up his execution-stake and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his own life will lose it, but the person who loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 “Whoever receives you is receiving me, and whoever receives me is receiving the One who sent me. 41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive the reward a prophet gets, and anyone who receives a tzaddik because he is a tzaddik will receive the reward a tzaddik gets. 42 Indeed, if someone gives just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my talmid — yes! — I tell you, he will certainly not lose his reward!”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.