Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

43 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

² For Thou art the God of my strength; why dost Thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

³ O send out Thy light and Thy truth! Let them lead me. Let them bring me unto Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles.

⁴ Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God.

⁵ Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.

²⁷ And there came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him, “Thus saith the Lord: ‘Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house?

²⁸ And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon Mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before Me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire from the children of Israel?

²⁹ Why kick ye at My sacrifice and at Mine offering which I have commanded in My habitation, and honorest thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people?’

³⁰ Therefore the Lord God of Israel saith: ‘I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before Me for ever.’ But now the Lord saith, ‘Be it far from Me; for them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

³¹ Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.

³² And thou shalt see an enemy in My habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.

³³ And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from Mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart; and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.

³⁴ And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them.

³⁵ And I will raise Me up a faithful priest who shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My mind; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before Mine anointed for ever.

³⁶ And it shall come to pass that every one that is left in thine house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, “Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.”’”

¹⁷ Behold, thou art called a Jew and rest in the law and make thy boast of God,

¹⁸ and knowest His will and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed from the law,

¹⁹ and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

²¹ Thou therefore who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?

²² Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

²³ Thou that makest thy boast in the law, dost thou dishonor God through breaking the law?

²⁴ For, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you,” as it is written.

²⁵ For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.

²⁶ Therefore if the Uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?

²⁷ And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who having the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.

²⁹ But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and whose circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, and whose praise is not from men, but from God.