Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹ ¶ Halelu-JAH. Praise, O ye slaves of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.

² Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.

³ From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised.

⁴ The LORD is high above all Gentiles and his glory above the heavens.

⁵ Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high,

⁶ who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth!

⁷ He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the destitute out of the dunghill;

⁸ that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.

⁹ He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of sons. Halelu-JAH.

23 ¶ Thou shalt not admit a false rumour; put not thine hand with the wicked to be a false witness.

² Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause hiding behind many to wrest judgment;

³ neither shalt thou honour a poor man in his cause.

⁴ If thou should encounter thine enemy’s ox or his ass astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

⁵ If thou see the ass of him that hates thee lying under his burden, will thou forbear to help him? Thou shalt surely help him to raise it up.

⁶ Thou shalt not pervert the rights of thy poor in his cause.

⁷ Keep thee far from a false matter; and slay thou not the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.

⁸ And thou shalt take no bribe; for the bribe blinds the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

⁹ Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the state of the soul of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

3 ¶ What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

² Much in every way: first, certainly, that the oracles of God have been entrusted unto them.

³ For what if some of them did not believe? Shall their unbelief have made the truth of God without effect?

⁴ No, in no wise: for God is true, and every man a liar; as it is written, That thou might be justified in thy words and might overcome when thou dost judge.

⁵ And if our iniquity commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Shall for this reason God be unjust who sends punishment? (I speak as a man.)

⁶ No, in no wise: for then how shall God judge the world?

⁷ For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why even so am I also judged as a sinner?

⁸ And why not say (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? The condemnation of whom is just.