Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked.
A Psalm of [a]Asaph.
50 (A)The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken,
And summoned the earth (B)from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, (C)the perfection of beauty,
God (D)has shone forth.
3 May our God (E)come and not keep silence;
(F)Fire devours before Him,
And it is very (G)tempestuous around Him.
4 He (H)summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:
5 “Gather My (I)godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a (J)covenant with Me by (K)sacrifice.”
6 And the (L)heavens declare His righteousness,
For (M)God Himself is judge. [b]Selah.
7 “(N)Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify [c]against you;
I am God, (O)your God.
8 “I do (P)not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 “I shall take no (Q)young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.
10 “For (R)every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11 “I know every (S)bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is [d]Mine.
12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the (T)world is Mine, and [e]all it contains.
13 “Shall I eat the flesh of [f](U)bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
14 “Offer to God (V)a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And (W)pay your vows to the Most High;
15 (X)Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall (Y)rescue you, and you will (Z)honor Me.”
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to tell of My statutes
And to take (AA)My covenant in your mouth?
17 “For you (AB)hate discipline,
And you (AC)cast My words behind you.
18 “When you see a thief, you [g](AD)are pleased with him,
And [h]you (AE)associate with adulterers.
19 “You [i](AF)let your mouth loose in evil
And your (AG)tongue frames deceit.
20 “You sit and (AH)speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 “These things you have done and (AI)I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will (AJ)reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.
Foreigners Excluded
13 On that day (A)they read aloud from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and there was found written in it that (B)no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but (C)hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, (D)our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 So when they heard the law, (E)they excluded (F)all foreigners from Israel.
Mixed Marriages Forbidden
23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had [a](A)married women from (B)Ashdod, (C)Ammon and Moab. 24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but [b]the language of his own people. 25 So (D)I contended with them and cursed them and (E)struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and (F)made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 (G)Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? (H)Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and (I)he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin. 27 [c]Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil (J)by acting unfaithfully against our God by [d]marrying foreign women?” 28 Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of (K)Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me. 29 (L)Remember them, O my God, [e]because they have defiled the priesthood and the (M)covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
30 (N)Thus I purified them from everything foreign and appointed duties for the priests and the Levites, each in his task, 31 and I arranged (O)for the supply of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. (P)Remember me, O my God, for good.
9 I wrote you in my letter (A)not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with (B)idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But [a]actually, I wrote to you not to associate [b]with any so-called (C)brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or (D)an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging (E)outsiders? (F)Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God [c]judges. (G)Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
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