Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

43 Vindicate me, O Elohim, and plead my cause against a nation lo chasid; O deliver me from the ish mirmah v’avlah (deceitful and unjust man).

² For Thou art the Elohei Ma’oz of me. Why dost Thou cast me off? Why must I go mourning because of the oppression of the oyev?

³ O send out Thy Ohr and Thy Emes; let them guide me; let them bring me unto Thy Har Kodesh, and to Thy Mishkan.

⁴ Then will I go unto the Mizbe’ach of Elohim, unto El my exceeding joy; yea, upon the kinnor will I praise Thee, O Elohim Elohai.

⁵ Why art thou cast down, O my nefesh? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in Elohim; for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the Yeshu’ot of my countenance, and Elohai.

²⁷ And there came an Ish Elohim unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith Hashem, Did I not plainly reveal Myself unto the Bais Avicha, when they were in Mitzrayim under Bais Pharaoh?

²⁸ And did I not choose him out of kol Shivtei Yisroel to be Kohen to Me, to ascend Mine Mizbe’ach, to burn ketoret, to wear an Ephod in My presence? And did I give unto the Bais Avicha all the fire offerings of the Bnei Yisroel?

²⁹ Why kick scornfully at My zevach and My minchah, which I have commanded in My ma’on (habitation, dwelling [See Yn 14:2 OJBC]); and honorest thy banim above Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of kol minchat Yisroel, before Ami (My People).

³⁰ Therefore Hashem Elohei Yisroel saith, I said indeed that thy Bais, and the Bais Avicha, should walk before Me ad olam (forever); but now Hashem saith, Be it far from Me; for them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

³¹ Hinei, the yamim are coming, that I will cut off thine zero’a, and the zero’a of the Bais Avicha, that there shall not be a zaken in thine Bais.

³² And thou shalt see Tzar Ma’on [See 1Sm 4:11 and Jer 7:12-14] in spite of all that He will do of tov to Yisroel; and there shall not be a zaken in thine Bais kol hayamim.

³³ And the ish of thine, whom I shall not cut off from Mine Mizbe’ach, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine nefesh; and all the increase of thine Bais shall die anashim [i.e., not zekenim].

³⁴ And this shall be HaOt unto thee, that shall come upon thy two banim, on Chophni and on Pinchas: in one day they shall die both of them.

³⁵ And I will raise up for Me a Kohen Ne’eman, that shall do according to that which is in Mine lev and in My nefesh; and I will build for him a Bais Ne’eman; and he shall walk before Mine Moshiach kol hayamim.

³⁶ And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine Bais shall come and bow before him [i.e., the Kohen Ne’eman] to get an agorat kesef (a silver coin) and a kikar lechem (loaf of bread), and shall say, Put me please into one of the Kehunnot (Divisions of the Kehunah), that I may get a piece of lechem to eat.

¹⁷ But if you are called by the name Yehudi (Jew) and rely on the Torah and boast in Hashem,

¹⁸ And have da’as of His will and approve the things that matter, being instructed from the Torah

¹⁹ And being confident that you are a moreh derech (guide) of the ivrim (blind ones), an ohr for those in choshech,

²⁰ A rabbinic moreh (teacher) of the foolish, a melammed (instructor) of the young, having the embodiment of da’as (knowledge) and Emes (Ro 1:25) in the Torah...

²¹ You, then, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach LO TIGNOV ("Do not steal!" SHEMOT 20:15), do you steal?

²² You who say, LO TINAF ("Do not commit adultery!" SHEMOT 20:14), do you commit adultery? You who abhor elilim (idols), do you rob pagan temples?

²³ You who boast in the Torah, through sur min haTorah (deviating from the Torah), you commit Chillul Hashem.

²⁴ As it is written, Among the Goyim KOL HAYOM HASHEM HAELOHIM MINNO’ATZ ("All the day long the Name of G-d is being blasphemed" (YESHAYAH 52:5) because of you.

²⁵ For the bris milah (circumcision) is of benefit if you stand in mishma’at (obedience) to the Torah. But if you are guilty, if you are sur min haTorah (deviating from the Torah) (2:23), your bris milah has become uncircumcision.

²⁶ If then the ben Adam without bris milah is shomer fulfilling the just requirements of the Torah (1:32), will not his uncircumcision be counted as "bris milah "?

²⁷ And the naturally uncircumcised ben Adam who has mishma’at (obedience) to the Torah will arise as a judgment on you. You! The very one who through chumra (strict adherence to the letter of the law, legalism) and circumcision (i.e., "uncircumcision "—2:25) are the transgressor of Torah!

²⁸ For the true Yehudi (Jew) is not the one [humanly] perceived as such, nor true bris milah that which is performed visibly in the flesh;

²⁹ The true Yehudi is so in [Hashem’s] hidden way, and true bris milah is of the lev, in the [hitkhadshut (renewal) of the (Yn 3:3)] Ruach Hakodesh, not in chumra (legalism, strict adherence to the letter of the law). The one so marked has hoda’ah (praise "Yehudah, Hodah, Praise"...see BERESHIS 29:35) that comes not from Bnei Adam but from Hashem [T.N.Jer 31:31-34].