Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 43[a]
1 Plead for me; clear my name, O God. Prove me innocent
before immoral people;
Save me from their lies,
their unjust thoughts and deeds.
2 You are the True God—my shelter, my protector, the one whom I lean on.
Why have You turned away from me? Rejected me?
Why must I go around, overwrought, mourning,
suffering under the weight of my enemies?
3 O my God, shine Your light and truth
to help me see clearly,
To lead me to Your holy mountain,
to Your home.
4 Then I will go to God’s altar with nothing to hide.
I will go to God, my rapture;
I will sing praises to You and play my strings,
unloading my cares, unleashing my joys, to You, God, my God.
5 O my soul, why are you so overwrought?
Why are you so disturbed?
Why can’t I just hope in God? Despite all my emotions, I will hope in God again.
I will believe and praise the One
who saves me and is my life,
My Savior and my God.
27 A man sent by the True God came to Eli.
Man: This is the message of the Eternal One: “I made Myself known to your family when Israel was enslaved under Pharaoh in Egypt. 28 I chose your ancestor Aaron from among all the tribes of Israel to be My priest: to serve at the altar, to offer incense, and to wear the priestly vest in My presence. And I repaid your family by presenting them with all the offerings made to Me by fire from all the people of Israel. 29 Why do you look with such greedy eyes on all the sacrifices and offerings I have directed the people to bring to My house? Why do you honor your sons more than you honor Me by feasting on the choicest parts of every single offering made by My people Israel?”
30 Therefore the Eternal God of Israel declares: “I promised that your family would go in and out of My presence forever. But now I surely declare, those who honor Me I will honor, but people who choose to despise Me, I, in turn, will consider contemptible: those who hate Me will not matter to Me. 31 Look, the time approaches when I will cut away your strength and the strength of your family, so that none of you will live to old age. 32 Then, in agony, you will see all the good things I do for Israel; there will be great distress, and no one in your family will live to old age ever again.
33 “Any of your family not cut off will grieve continually and will cry their eyes out. All the other members of your household will die violently in the prime of life. 34 The fate of your sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign of the future. Both of them will die on the very same day. 35 I will raise up a faithful priest who will do what I desire and purpose in My heart and mind. I will build him a secure house, and he will go in and out before My anointed one continually. 36 Those of your family who survive will come to him and bow down for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and they will beg him, ‘Please make me a priest so at least I can have a morsel of bread.’”
17 Listen, if you claim to be a Jew, count on the law, and boast in your relationship with God; 18 if you know His will and can determine what is essential (because you have been instructed in the law); and 19 if you stand convinced that you are chosen to be a guide to the blind, a light to those who live in darkness, 20 a teacher of foolish wanderers and children, and have in the law what is essentially the form of knowledge and truth— 21 then tell me, why don’t you practice what you preach? If you are going to sermonize against stealing, then stop stealing. 22 If you are going to teach others not to commit adultery, then be completely faithful to your spouse. If you hate idolatry, then stop robbing the temples! 23 If you pride yourself in having God’s law, then stop dishonoring God by failing to keep its teaching. 24 Here’s what it says: “Because of you, God’s reputation is slandered by those outside the covenant.”[a]
25 You see, circumcision is of value only if you keep the law’s teachings. But if you keep breaking God’s rules, you are no different than those without the mark. 26 So if an uncircumcised man abides by God’s just precepts, doesn’t that make his standing before God the same as one who is circumcised? 27 The man who is physically uncircumcised but still keeps the law, he will stand in judgment over the person who is circumcised and yet continually breaks God’s law. 28 A mark that is evident doesn’t necessarily make one a Jew, and circumcision that is evident only in the flesh is not true. 29 But the true Jew is Jewish on the inside—in secret places no one but God can see—and true circumcision involves the heart; it comes from the Spirit, not from some written code. The praise and reputation of that kind of Jew come from God, not from man.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.