Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God Knows Everything
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
139 Lord, you have ·examined [investigated; searched] me
and know all about me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I ·get up [rise].
You ·know [understand] my thoughts ·before I think them [L from afar].
3 You ·know [L measure] ·where I go [L my path] and ·where I lie down [L my lying down].
You ·know [are familiar with] ·everything I do [L all my path].
4 Lord, even ·before I say a word [L when no word is on my tongue],
you already know ·it [L all of it].
5 You ·are all around me [L hem me in]—in front and in back—
and have put your hand on me.
6 Your knowledge is ·amazing [wonderful; or overwhelming] to me;
it is ·more than I can understand [too high/unattainable. I am not able to grasp it; Rom. 11:33].
7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?
Where can I ·run [flee] from you?
8 If I ·go [climb] up to the heavens, you are there.
If I ·lie down [spread out; make my bed] in ·the grave [L Sheol; C the grave or the underworld], you are there.
9 If I rise with the ·sun in the east [L wings of the dawn]
and settle in the ·west beyond [L back of] the sea,
10 even there ·you [L your hand] would guide me.
With your right hand you would ·hold [grab; seize] me.
11 I could say, “The darkness will ·hide [cover] me.
Let the light around me turn into night.”
12 But even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night ·is as light as [shines like] the day;
darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You ·made [created] my ·whole being [inward parts];
you ·formed [knitted] me in my mother’s ·body [belly; womb].
14 I ·praise [thank] you because you made me in an ·amazing [awesome] and wonderful way.
What you have done is wonderful.
I know this very well.
15 ·You saw my bones being formed [L My bones were not hidden from you]
as I ·took shape [was made] in ·my mother’s body [L secret].
When I was ·put together [L woven] ·there [L in the depths of the earth],
16 ·you [L your eyes] saw my ·body as it was formed [L embyro].
All the days ·planned [L formed] for me
were written in your book
·before I was one day old [not one of them existed].
17 God, your thoughts are precious to me.
·They are so many [L How vast are their sum; Job 42:3]!
18 If I could count them,
they would be more than all the grains of sand.
When I ·wake up [or come to the end],
I am still with you.
21 Joash was seven years old when he became king.
Joash’s Reign(A)
12 Joash became king of Judah in Jehu’s seventh year as king of Israel, and he ·ruled [reigned] for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, and she was from Beersheba. 2 Joash did ·what the Lord said was right [L right in the sight of the Lord] as long as Jehoiada the priest ·taught [instructed] him. 3 But the ·places where gods were worshiped [L high places; C worship sites that became associated with pagan worship or inappropriate worship of God] were not removed; the people still made sacrifices and burned incense there.
Joash Repairsthe Temple
4 Joash said to the priests, “Take all the money brought as offerings to the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord. This includes the money each person ·owes in taxes [is assessed] and the money ·each person promises [from personal vows] or ·brings freely [money brought voluntarily] to the Lord. 5 Each priest will take the money from ·the people he serves [donors; or acquaintances; or the treasurers]. Then the priests must ·repair [restore] any damage they find in the ·Temple [L house].”
6 But by the twenty-third year Joash was king, the priests still had not ·repaired [restored] the ·Temple [L house]. 7 So King Joash called for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why aren’t you ·repairing the damage of [restoring] the ·Temple [L house]? Don’t take any more money from ·the people you serve [donors; or acquaintances; or the treasurers], but hand over the money for the ·repair [restoration] of the ·Temple [L house].” 8 The priests agreed not to take any more money from the people and not to ·repair [restore] the ·Temple [L house] themselves.
9 Jehoiada the priest took a box and made a hole in the ·top of it [lid]. Then he put it by the altar, on the right side as the people came into the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord. The priests guarding the ·doorway [entrance; threshold] put all the money brought to the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord into the box.
10 Each time the priests saw that the box was full of money, the king’s royal secretary and the high priest came. They counted the money that had been brought to the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord, and they put it into bags. 11 Next they weighed the money and gave it to the people in charge of the work on the ·Temple [L house]. With it they paid the carpenters and the builders who worked on the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord, 12 as well as the ·bricklayers [masons] and stonecutters. They also used the money to buy timber and cut stone to ·repair the damage of [restore] the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord. It paid for ·everything [anything else that was used].
13 The money brought into the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord was not used to make silver cups, ·wick trimmers [snuffers], bowls, trumpets, or gold or silver vessels. 14 They paid the money to the workers, who used it to ·repair [restore] the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord. 15 They did not ·demand to know how the money was spent [require an accounting], because the workers were honest. 16 The money from the ·penalty [guilt] offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the ·Temple [L house] of the Lord, because it belonged to the priests.
A Warning to the Rich
5 You rich people, ·listen [L Come now; 4:13]! Cry [Weep] and be very sad because of the ·troubles [miseries] that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. 3 Your gold and silver have ·rusted [corroded], and that ·rust [corrosion] will be a ·proof that you were wrong [L witness/testimony/evidence against you]. It will eat your ·bodies [flesh] like fire. You ·saved [hoarded; stored up] your treasure ·for [or in] the last days [C just before judgment day, when such treasures will be useless]. 4 [L Listen; T Behold] The ·pay [wages] you ·did not give [defrauded from] the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you [Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14–15], and the cries of the ·workers [L harvesters] have ·been heard by [L reached the ears of] the Lord ·All-Powerful [of Hosts/Armies; L Sabaoth; C God’s warrior name referring to the angelic army]. 5 Your life on earth was full of ·rich living [luxury] and ·pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted [pleasure; self-indulgence]. You made ·yourselves [L your hearts] fat, ·like an animal ready to be killed [in/for a day of slaughter; C a farm animal gorging itself, unaware it is being fattened for slaughter]. 6 You have ·judged guilty [condemned] and then murdered innocent people, who ·were not against [did not resist/oppose] you.
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