Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
139 O Lord, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.
2
You know when I sit down and when I rise up [my entire life, everything I do];
You understand my thought from afar.(A)
3
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4
Even before there is a word on my tongue [still unspoken],
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.(B)
5
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And [You have] placed Your hand upon me.
6
Such [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high [above me], I cannot reach it.
7
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), behold, You are there.(C)
9
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
11
If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,
And the night will be the only light around me,”
12
Even the darkness is not dark to You and conceals nothing from You,
But the night shines as bright as the day;
Darkness and light are alike to You.(D)
13
For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.
14
I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was being formed in secret,
And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.
16
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].
17
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!(E)
18
If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
21 [a]Jehoash (Joash) was seven years old when he became king.
Joash (Jehoash) Reigns over Judah
12 In the seventh year of Jehu [king of Israel], [b]Jehoash became king [over Judah], and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 Jehoash did right in the sight of the Lord all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 Only the high places were not removed; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense [to the Lord] on the high places [rather than at the temple].
The Temple to Be Repaired
4 Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money for the dedicated things which is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both the money of each man’s assessment [for all those bound by vows], and all the money which any man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house (temple) of the Lord, 5 let the priests receive such contributions for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair any breach in the house of the Lord, wherever a breach is found.”
6 But it came about in the twenty-third year of [the reign of] King Jehoash, that the priests still had not repaired the damages of the Lord’s house. 7 Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest and the [other] priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the damage of the house (temple)? Now then, do not take any more money from your acquaintances, but turn it all over for [the repair of] the damages of the house.” [You are no longer responsible for this work. I will take it into my own hands.] 8 So the priests agreed that they would receive no [more] money from the people, nor [be responsible to] repair the damages of the house.
9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the door put in the chest all the money that was brought [by the people] into the house of the Lord. 10 And whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of the Lord. 11 Then they gave the money, which was weighed out into the hands of those who were doing the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house (temple) of the Lord, 12 and to the masons and stonecutters, and to buy timber and hewn (cut) stone to repair any breach in the house of the Lord, and for all that was laid out for repairing the house. 13 However, there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any gold containers or [other] silver containers, from the money that was brought into the house of the Lord; 14 but they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord. 15 Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hands they placed the money to be paid to those who did the work, for they acted in good faith. 16 Money from the guilt offerings and money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord [for repairs]; it was for the priests.
Misuse of Riches
5 Come [quickly] now, you rich [who lack true faith and hoard and misuse your resources], weep and howl over the miseries [the woes, the judgments] that are coming upon you. 2 Your wealth has rotted and is ruined and your [fine] clothes have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up your treasure in the last days [when it will do you no good]. 4 Look! The wages that you have [fraudulently] withheld from the laborers who have mowed your fields are crying out [against you for vengeance]; and the cries of the harvesters have come to the ears of [a]the Lord of Sabaoth.(A) 5 On the earth you have lived luxuriously and abandoned yourselves to soft living and led a life of wanton pleasure [self-indulgence, self-gratification]; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and have put to death the righteous man; he offers you no resistance.
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