Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
He
33 O Eternal One, show me how to live according to Your statutes,
and I will keep them always.
34 Grant me understanding so that I can keep Your law
and keep it wholeheartedly.
35 Guide me to walk in the way You commanded
because I take joy in it.
36 Turn my head and my heart to Your decrees
and not to sinful gain.
37 Keep my eyes from gazing upon worthless things,
and give me true life according to Your plans.
38 Verify Your word to Your servant,
which will lead me to worship You.
39 Take away the scorn that I dread
because Your actions are just and good.
40 Look and see—I long for Your guidance;
restore me in Your righteousness.
33 The word of the Eternal came to me.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, talk with your fellow exiles, and tell them, “If I wage war against a country and the people appoint one of their own to be a lookout, 3 and if the lookout sees an army advancing toward the land and blows a trumpet to warn the people, 4-5 and if someone hears the alarm and ignores it, allowing that army to come and capture him; then it is his own fault for not taking appropriate action. His blood will be on his own hands. If he had done something, he could have saved his life and the lives of others. 6 But if the lookout sees an army advancing and does not sound the alarm to warn the people and if some are captured or killed, then their blood will be on the hands of the lookout.”
29 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build monuments to your dead, you mouth pieties over the bodies of prophets, you decorate the graves of your righteous ancestors. 30 And you say, “If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have known better—we would not have joined them when they rose up against the prophets.” 31 Even when you are preening, you make plain that you descended from those who murdered our prophets. 32 So why don’t you finish what your forefathers started? 33 You are children of vipers, you belly-dragging snakes. You won’t escape the judgment of hell.
34 That is why I am sending you prophets and wise men, teachers of breadth and depth and substance. You will kill some of them and crucify others. You will flog others in your synagogues. You will pursue them from town to town. 35 And on your heads, stained through your hands and drenching your clothes, my friends, will be all the righteous blood ever shed on this earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah whom you murdered in the house of the Lord between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 I tell you: this generation will bear the blood of all that has gone before.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.