Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
11 Adonai, teach me your way,
so that I can live by your truth;
make me single-hearted,
so that I can fear your name.
12 I will thank you, Adonai my God,
with my whole heart;
and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For your grace toward me is so great!
You have rescued me from the lowest part of Sh’ol.
14 God, arrogant men are rising against me,
a gang of brutes is seeking my life,
and to you they pay no attention.
15 But you, Adonai,
are a merciful, compassionate God,
slow to anger
and rich in grace and truth.
16 Turn to me, and show me your favor;
strengthen your servant, save your slave-girl’s son.
17 Give me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me
will see it and be ashamed,
because you, Adonai,
have helped and comforted me.
21 “Present your case,” says Adonai,
“Produce your arguments,” says Ya‘akov’s king.
22 Bring out those idols!
Have them foretell the future for us,
tell us about past events,
so that we can reflect on them
and understand their consequences.
Or tell us about events yet to come,
23 state what will happen in the future,
so that we can know you are gods.
At least, do something, either good or bad —
anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!
24 You can’t! — because you are less than nothing.
Whoever chooses you is an abomination!
25 “I roused someone from the north,
and he has come from the rising sun;
he will call on my name.
He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter treading clay.”
26 Who said this at the start, so we could know,
or foretold it, so we could say, “He’s right”?
In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it —
the fact is, nobody hears what you say.
27 I am the first to declare it to Tziyon,
to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.
28 But when I look around, there is no one —
not a single one can give counsel,
who, when I ask, can give an answer.
29 Look at them all! What they do is nothing!
Their idols are so much wind and waste.
2 Therefore, we must pay much more careful heed to the things we have heard, so that we will not drift away. 2 For if the word God spoke through angels became binding, so that every violation and act of disobedience received its just deserts in full measure, 3 then how will we escape if we ignore such a great deliverance? This deliverance, which was first declared by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him; 4 while God also bore witness to it with various signs, wonders and miracles, and with gifts of the Ruach HaKodesh which he distributed as he chose.
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the ‘olam haba — which is what we are talking about. 6 And there is a place where someone has given this solemn testimony:
“What is mere man, that you concern yourself with him?
or the son of man, that you watch over him with such care?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels,
you crowned him with glory and honor,
8 you put everything in subjection under his feet.”[a]
In subjecting everything to him, he left nothing unsubjected to him. However, at present, we don’t see everything subjected to him — at least, not yet. 9 But we do see Yeshua — who indeed was made for a little while lower than the angels — now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for all humanity.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.