Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the seat of scorners;

² But his delight is in Jehovah's law, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he [is] as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth.

⁴ The wicked are not so; but are as the chaff which the wind driveth away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

⁵ And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

⁶ Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any of all the sins of man to work unfaithfulness against Jehovah, and that soul is guilty,

⁷ then they shall confess their sin which they have done; and he shall recompense his trespass according to the principal thereof, and shall add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.

⁸ And if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, the trespass which is recompensed to Jehovah shall be the priest's, besides the ram of the atonement, wherewith an atonement is made for him.

⁹ And every heave-offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present unto the priest, shall be his.

¹⁰ And every man's hallowed things shall be his: whatever any man giveth the priest shall be his.

⁵ For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou mightest go on to set right what remained [unordered], and establish elders in each city, as *I* had ordered thee:

⁶ if any one be free from all charge [against him], husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of excess or unruly.

⁷ For the overseer must be free from all charge [against him] as God's steward; not headstrong, not passionate, not disorderly through wine, not a striker, not seeking gain by base means;

⁸ but hospitable, a lover of goodness, discreet, just, pious, temperate,

⁹ clinging to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught, that he may be able both to encourage with sound teaching and refute gainsayers.

¹⁰ For there are many and disorderly vain speakers and deceivers of people's minds, specially those of [the] circumcision,

¹¹ who must have their mouths stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which ought not [to be taught] for the sake of base gain.

¹² One of themselves, a prophet of their own, has said, Cretans are always liars, evil wild beasts, lazy gluttons.

¹³ This testimony is true; for which cause rebuke them severely, that they may be sound in the faith,

¹⁴ not turning [their] minds to Jewish fables and commandments of men turning away from the truth.

¹⁵ All things [are] pure to the pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing [is] pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

¹⁶ They profess to know God, but in works deny [him], being abominable, and disobedient, and found worthless as to every good work.