Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
ת tav
169 Let my cry reach you, Lord;
help me understand according to what you’ve said.
170 Let my request for grace come before you;
deliver me according to your promise!
171 Let my lips overflow with praise
because you’ve taught me your statutes.
172 Let my tongue declare your word,
because all your commandments are righteous.
173 Let your power help me
because I have chosen your precepts.
174 Lord, I long for your saving help!
Your Instruction is my joy!
175 Let me live again so I can praise you!
Let your rules help me!
176 I’ve wandered off like a sheep, lost.
Find your servant
because I haven’t forgotten
your commandments!
Jeroboam I and the man of God
13 A man of God came from Judah by God’s command to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing at the altar burning incense. 2 By the Lord’s word, the man of God cried out to the altar: “Altar! Altar! The Lord says this: Look! A son will be born to the house of David. His name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice on you, Altar, the very priests of the shrines who offer incense on you. They will burn human bones on you.” 3 At that time the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign that the Lord mentioned: ‘Look! The altar will be broken apart, and its ashes will spill out.’”
4 When the king heard the word of the man of God and how he cried out to the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand that Jeroboam stretched out against the man of God grew stiff. Jeroboam wasn’t able to bend it back to himself. 5 The altar broke apart, and the ashes spilled out from the altar, just like the sign that the man of God gave by the Lord’s word. 6 The king said to the man of God, “Plead before the Lord your God and pray for me so that I can bend my hand back again.” So the man of God pleaded before the Lord, and the king’s hand returned to normal and was like it used to be. 7 The king spoke to the man of God: “Come with me to the palace and refresh yourself. Let me give you a gift.”
8 The man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn’t go with you, nor would I eat food or drink water in this place. 9 This is what God commanded me by the Lord’s word: Don’t eat food! Don’t drink water! Don’t return by the way you came!”
10 So the man of God went by a different way. He didn’t return by the way he came to Bethel.
All are under the power of sin
9 So what are we saying? Are we better off? Not at all. We have already stated the charge: both Jews and Greeks are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written,
There is no righteous person, not even one.
11 There is no one who understands.
There is no one who looks for God.
12 They all turned away.
They have become worthless together.
There is no one who shows kindness.
There is not even one.[a]
13 Their throat is a grave that has been opened.
They are deceitful with their tongues,
and the poison of vipers is under their lips.[b]
14 Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.[c]
15 Their feet are quick to shed blood;
16 destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 and they don’t know the way of peace.[d]
18 There is no fear of God in their view of the world.[e]
19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, in order to shut every mouth and make it so the whole world has to answer to God. 20 It follows that no human being will be treated as righteous in his presence by doing what the Law says, because the knowledge of sin comes through the Law.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible