Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

MEM

9 Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them. ² The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Yahweh their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed and worshiped Yahweh their God. ⁴ Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani of the Levites stood up on the stairs, and cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.

⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! ⁶ You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you. ⁷ You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, gave him the name of Abraham, ⁸ found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his offspring, and have performed your words, for you are righteous.

⁹ “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea, ¹⁰ and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is today. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters. ¹² Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

¹³ “You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, ¹⁴ and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant, ¹⁵ and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

²¹ subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

²² Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. ²⁴ But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect. ²⁸ Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly, ³⁰ because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. ³¹ “For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. Then the two will become one flesh.”^{(A) 32} This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the assembly. ³³ Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: ³ “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.” ^(B)

⁴ You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ, ⁶ not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, ⁷ with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, ⁸ knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same good again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.

⁹ You masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.