Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

TAU.

¹⁶⁹ ¶ Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD; give me understanding according to thy word.

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before thee; deliver me according to thy spoken word.

¹⁷¹ ¶ My lips shall overflow with praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

¹⁷² ¶ My tongue shall speak thy words; for all thy commandments are righteousness.

¹⁷³ ¶ Let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for thy saving health, O LORD, and thy law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ ¶ Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me.

¹⁷⁶ ¶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy slave; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.

13 ¶ And, behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel; and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

² And he cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, O altar, altar, thus hath the LORD said: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.

³ And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes with the burnt fat that are upon it shall be poured out.

⁴ And when King Jeroboam heard the word of the man of God, who had cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

⁵ The altar also was rent, and the ashes with the burnt fat were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

⁶ Then the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again and became as it was before.

⁷ And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a gift.

⁸ But the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place,

⁹ for so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread nor drink water nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin;

¹⁰ as it is written, There is no one righteous, no, not one;

¹¹ there is no one that understands; there is no one that seeks after God.

¹² They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is no one that does good, no, not one.

¹³ Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips,

¹⁴ whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;

¹⁵ their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ destruction and misery are in their ways,

¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known;

¹⁸ there is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹ ¶ Now we know that all that the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may submit themselves unto God.

²⁰ For by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.