Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
How Precious Your Thoughts!
Psalm 139
1 For the music director: a psalm of David.
Adonai, You searched me and know me.
2 Whenever I sit down or stand up, You know it.
You discern my thinking from afar.
3 You observe my journeying and my resting
and You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, Adonai, You know all about it.
5 You hemmed me in behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from Your Ruach?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, You are there,
and if I make my bed in Sheol,
look, You are there too.
9 If I take the wings of the dawn
and settle on the other side of the sea,
10 even there Your hand will lead me,
and Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11 If I say: “Surely darkness covers me,
night keeps light at a distance from me,”
12 even darkness is not dark for You,
and night is as bright as day—
darkness and light are alike.
13 For You have created my conscience.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made!
Wonderful are Your works—
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was unformed,
and in Your book were written the days that were formed—
when not one of them had come to be.
17 How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand!
When I awake, I am still with You.
Jehoash Restores the Temple
12 Jehoash was seven years old when he became king. 2 Jehoash began his reign in the seventh year of Jehu and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. 3 Now Jehoash did what was right in Adonai’s eyes all his days, just as Jehoiada the kohen instructed him. 4 The high places, however, were not taken away. The people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.
5 Then Jehoash said to the kohanim, “All the money of the sacred donations brought to the House of Adonai—the money in exchange for each person’s valuation, as well as all the money that anyone’s heart prompts him to bring to the House of Adonai— 6 let the kohanim receive it, each from one of the treasurers, so they may repair the damage to the House wherever any damage is found.”
7 But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the kohanim still had not repaired the damage to the House. 8 Then King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the kohen and the other kohanim, and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage to the House? Now therefore, take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for the damage to the House.” 9 The kohanim agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor would they repair the damage of the House.
10 But Jehoiada the kohen took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one entered the House of Adonai. The priestly guards of the threshold deposited there all the money that was brought to the House of Adonai. 11 Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal scribe and the kohen gadol would come up, put the money in bags and count the money that was found in the House of Adonai. 12 Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had been overseeing the House of Adonai—they, in turn, would pay it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the House of Adonai, 13 and to the masons and the stonecutters, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to Adonai’s House, and for all that was laid out for the House to repair it.
14 But there were no silver cups, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, and no vessels of gold or vessels of silver made for the House of Adonai from the money brought to the House of Adonai. 15 For they gave it to those that did the work, and with it they repaired the House of Adonai. 16 They did not check on the men to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, for they dealt faithfully.
Rotten Riches
5 Come now, you rich, weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothes have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields—which you kept back by fraud—are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. [a] 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts for a day of slaughter. [b] 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous person[c]—he does not resist you.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.