Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

TAU

¹⁶⁹ Let my complaint come before You, O LORD. And give me understanding according to Your Word.

¹⁷⁰ Let my supplication come before You and deliver me according to Your Promise.

¹⁷¹ My lips shall speak praise, when You have taught me Your Statutes.

¹⁷² My tongue shall testify of Your Word. For all Your Commandments are righteous.

¹⁷³ Let Your hand help me, for I have chosen Your Precepts.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for Your salvation, O LORD; and Your Law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵ Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and Your Judgments shall help me.

¹⁷⁶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your Commandments. A song of degrees

13 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah (by the Commandment of the LORD) to Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar, to offer incense.

² And he cried against the altar by the Commandment of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name. And upon you shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you. And they shall burn men’s bones upon you.’”

³ And he gave a sign at the same time, saying, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: Behold, the altar shall tear, and the ashes that are upon it shall fall out.”

⁴ And when the king had heard the saying of the man of God, which he had cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand for the altar, saying, “Lay hold on him!” But his hand which he put forth against him dried up. And he could not pull it back in.

⁵ The altar also split apart. And the ashes fell out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the Commandment of the LORD.

⁶ Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “I implore you, pray to the LORD your God, and make intercession for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God prayed to the LORD. And the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, so that you may dine. And I will give you a reward.”

⁸ But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹ “For so I was charged by the Word of the LORD, saying: “Eat no bread nor drink water nor turn back by the same way that you came.”

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

⁹ What then? Are we more excellent? No, in no way! For we have already proved that all, both Jews and Gentiles, are under sin.

¹⁰ As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.

¹¹ “There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God.

¹² “They have all turned away. They have all been made useless. There is no one that does good; no, not one.

¹³ “Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. 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 path;

¹⁷ “and the way of peace they have not known.

¹⁸ “The fear of God is not before their eyes.”

¹⁹ Now, we know that whatever the Law says, it says it to those who are under the Law; so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be subject to the judgment of God.

²⁰ Therefore, no flesh shall be justified in His sight by the works of the Law. For by the Law comes the knowledge of sin.