Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹ ¶ Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against those who are not merciful; 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 do I go 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 the mountain of thy holiness and to thy tabernacles.

⁴ Then I will enter in to the altar of God, unto the God of 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? Wait for God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the saving health of my countenance and my God.

⁶ ¶ The son honours his father and the slave his master; if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I am a master, where is my fear? said the LORD of the hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, In what have we despised thy name?

⁷ Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar; and ye say, In what have we polluted thee? In that ye say, We die of hunger in the service of the LORD.

⁸ And when ye offer the blind animal for sacrifice, is it not evil? Likewise when ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy prince; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? said the LORD of the hosts.

⁹ And now, therefore, beseech the face of God, and he will have compassion on us; this has come by your hand: will he regard your persons? said the LORD of the hosts.

¹⁰ Who is there even among you that would shut the doors or tend the fire on my altar for free? I have no pleasure in you, said the LORD of the hosts, neither will the offering from your hand be agreeable unto me.

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered unto my name, and a clean offering; for my name is great among the Gentiles, said the LORD of the hosts.

¹² And ye have profaned it when ye say, We die of hunger at the service of the LORD and when ye speak that his food is contemptible.

¹³ And ye say, Behold, what a weariness it is! and ye have rejected it, said the LORD of the hosts; and ye brought that which was stolen or lame or sick and presented an offering: should this be acceptable unto me by your hand? said the LORD.

¹⁴ But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male and vows and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of the hosts, and my name is formidable among the Gentiles.

2 ¶ And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

² If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, said the LORD of the hosts, I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart.

³ Behold, I reprehend your seed and spread the dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemnities; and ye shall be removed with it.

⁴ And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, said the LORD of the hosts.

⁵ My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear with which he feared me and was broken before my name.

⁶ The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and righteousness and turned many away from iniquity.

⁷ For the priest’s lips keep wisdom, and they seek the law at his mouth; for he is an angel of the LORD of the hosts.

⁸ But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, said the LORD of the hosts.

⁹ Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

¹³ ¶ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of the heavens in front of men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye those that are entering to go in.

¹⁴ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses and for a pretence make long prayer; therefore, ye shall receive the greater judgment.

¹⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.

¹⁶ Woe unto you, ye blind guides, who say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

¹⁷ Ye fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

¹⁸ And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is a debtor.

¹⁹ Ye fools and blind, for which one is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

²⁰ Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it and by all things thereon.

²¹ And whosoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it and by Him that dwells therein.

²² And he that shall swear by the heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him that sits thereon.

²³ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted that which is more important of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith; these were expedient for ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

²⁴ Ye blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

²⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup or of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and incontinence.

²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whitewashed sepulchres, who indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.

²⁸ Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.