Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer for Protection

The Priests Don’t Respect God

⁶ The Lord All-Powerful says, “A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master.” I am a father, so why don’t you honor me? I am a master, so why don’t you respect me? You priests do not respect me.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown you disrespect?’

⁷ “You have shown it by bringing unclean food to my altar.

“But you ask, ‘What makes it unclean?’

“It is unclean because you don’t respect the altar of the Lord. ⁸ When you bring blind animals as sacrifices, that is wrong. When you bring crippled and sick animals, that is wrong. Try giving them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? He wouldn’t accept you,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

⁹ “Now ask God to be kind to you, but he won’t accept you with such offerings,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

¹⁰ “I wish one of you would close the Temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you and will not accept your gifts,” says the Lord All-Powerful. ¹¹ “From the east to the west I will be honored among the nations. Everywhere they will bring incense and clean offerings to me, because I will be honored among the nations,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

¹² “But you don’t honor me. You say about the Lord’s altar, ‘It is unclean, and the food has no worth.’ ¹³ You say, ‘We are tired of doing this,’ and you sniff at it in disgust,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

“And you bring hurt, crippled, and sick animals as gifts. You bring them as gifts, but I won’t accept them from you,” says the Lord. ¹⁴ “The person who cheats will be cursed. He has a male animal in his flock and promises to offer it, but then he offers to the Lord an animal that has something wrong with it. I am a great king,” says the Lord All-Powerful, “and I am feared by all the nations.

Rules for Priests

2 “Priests, this command is for you. ² Listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Honor my name,” says the Lord All-Powerful. “If you don’t, I will send a curse on you and on your blessings. I have already cursed them, because you don’t pay attention to what I say.

³ “I will punish your descendants. I will smear your faces with the animal insides left from your feasts, and you will be thrown away with it. ⁴ Then you will know that I am giving you this command so my agreement with Levi will continue,” says the Lord All-Powerful. ⁵ “My agreement for priests was with the tribe of Levi. I promised them life and peace so they would honor me. And they did honor me and fear me. ⁶ They taught the true teachings and spoke no lies. With peace and honesty they did what I said they should do, and they kept many people from sinning.

⁷ “A priest should teach what he knows, and people should learn the teachings from him, because he is the messenger of the Lord All-Powerful. ⁸ But you priests have stopped obeying me. With your teachings you have caused many people to do wrong. You have broken the agreement with the tribe of Levi!” says the Lord All-Powerful. ⁹ “You have not been careful to do what I say, but instead you take sides in court cases. So I have caused you to be hated and disgraced in front of everybody.”

¹³ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You close the door for people to enter the kingdom of heaven. You yourselves don’t enter, and you stop others who are trying to enter. [ ¹⁴ How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You take away widows’ houses, and you say long prayers so that people will notice you. So you will have a worse punishment.]^[a]

¹⁵ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You travel across land and sea to find one person who will change to your ways. When you find that person, you make him more fit for hell than you are.

¹⁶ “How terrible for you! You guide the people, but you are blind. You say, ‘If people swear by the Temple when they make a promise, that means nothing. But if they swear by the gold that is in the Temple, they must keep that promise.’ ¹⁷ You are blind fools! Which is greater: the gold or the Temple that makes that gold holy? ¹⁸ And you say, ‘If people swear by the altar when they make a promise, that means nothing. But if they swear by the gift on the altar, they must keep that promise.’ ¹⁹ You are blind! Which is greater: the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? ²⁰ The person who swears by the altar is really using the altar and also everything on the altar. ²¹ And the person who swears by the Temple is really using the Temple and also everything in the Temple. ²² The person who swears by heaven is also using God’s throne and the One who sits on that throne.

²³ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give to God one-tenth of everything you earn—even your mint, dill, and cumin.^[b] But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—justice, mercy, and being loyal. These are the things you should do, as well as those other things. ²⁴ You guide the people, but you are blind! You are like a person who picks a fly out of a drink and then swallows a camel!^[c]

²⁵ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside they are full of things you got by cheating others and by pleasing only yourselves. ²⁶ Pharisees, you are blind! First make the inside of the cup clean, and then the outside of the cup can be truly clean.

²⁷ “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You are like tombs that are painted white. Outside, those tombs look fine, but inside, they are full of the bones of dead people and all kinds of unclean things. ²⁸ It is the same with you. People look at you and think you are good, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and evil.