Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
ט Teth
65 You have been good to Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good discernment and knowledge,
for I have believed Your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I wandered,
but now I keep Your word.
68 You are good and do good;
teach me Your statutes.
69 The proud have spoken lies against me,
but I keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is as thick as fat,
but I delight in Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn Your statutes.
72 The law from Your mouth is better to me
than thousands of gold and silver coins.
2 If there be found among you, within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, man or woman, who has acted wickedly in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and if it is told to you, and you have heard of it, and investigated diligently, and it is true, and the matter is certain that such a detestable thing has happened in Israel, 5 then you must bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing to your gates, that very man or woman, and stone them with stones until they die. 6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses he that is to die must be put to death, but on the testimony of one witness he cannot be put to death. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
Courts of Law
8 If there arises a matter too difficult for you in judgment, between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one kind of lawsuit and another, and between one kind of assault and another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you must arise and go up to the place where the Lord your God shall choose. 9 You must go to the Levitical priests or to the judge in office those days, and inquire, and they will show you the verdict of judgment. 10 You shall do according to the verdict which they declare to you from the place where the Lord will choose to show you, and you must be careful to do all that they instruct you to do. 11 You must do according to the terms of the law which they instruct you and according to the verdict which they tell you. You must not deviate from the sentence which they show you, to the right or to the left. 12 The man who acts presumptuously and does not listen to the priest who stands to minister before the Lord your God, or to the judge—that man must die, and you must purge the evil from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear, and fear, and not act presumptuously again.
Subjection to Authorities
13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil works. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from him, 4 for he is the servant of God for your good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him who practices evil. 5 So it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are God’s servants, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: taxes to whom taxes are due, respect to whom respect is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.