Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God Knows Everything
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
139 Lord, you have examined me
and know all about me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up.
You know my thoughts before I think them.
3 You know where I go and where I lie down.
You know everything I do.
4 Lord, even before I say a word,
you already know it.
5 You are all around me—in front and in back—
and have put your hand on me.
6 Your knowledge is amazing to me;
it is more than I can understand.
7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?
Where can I run from you?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
If I lie down in the grave, you are there.
9 If I rise with the sun in the east
and settle in the west beyond the sea,
10 even there you would guide me.
With your right hand you would hold me.
11 I could say, “The darkness will hide 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 the day;
darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made my whole being;
you formed me in my mother’s body.
14 I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.
What you have done is wonderful.
I know this very well.
15 You saw my bones being formed
as I took shape in my mother’s body.
When I was put together there,
16 you saw my body as it was formed.
All the days planned for me
were written in your book
before I was one day old.
17 God, your thoughts are precious to me.
They are so many!
18 If I could count them,
they would be more than all the grains of sand.
When I wake up,
I am still with you.
21 Joash was seven years old when he became king.
12 Joash became king of Judah in Jehu’s seventh year as king of Israel, and he ruled 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 as long as Jehoiada the priest taught him. 3 But the places where gods were worshiped were not removed; the people still made sacrifices and burned incense there.
Joash Repairs the Temple
4 Joash said to the priests, “Take all the money brought as offerings to the Temple of the Lord. This includes the money each person owes in taxes and the money each person promises or brings freely to the Lord. 5 Each priest will take the money from the people he serves. Then the priests must repair any damage they find in the Temple.”
6 But by the twenty-third year Joash was king, the priests still had not repaired the Temple. 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 the Temple? Don’t take any more money from the people you serve, but hand over the money for the repair of the Temple.” 8 The priests agreed not to take any more money from the people and not to repair the Temple themselves.
9 Jehoiada the priest took a box and made a hole in the top of it. Then he put it by the altar, on the right side as the people came into the Temple of the Lord. The priests guarding the doorway put all the money brought to the Temple 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 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. With it they paid the carpenters and the builders who worked on the Temple of the Lord, 12 as well as the bricklayers and stonecutters. They also used the money to buy timber and cut stone to repair the damage of the Temple of the Lord. It paid for everything.
13 The money brought into the Temple of the Lord was not used to make silver cups, wick trimmers, bowls, trumpets, or gold or silver vessels. 14 They paid the money to the workers, who used it to repair the Temple of the Lord. 15 They did not demand to know how the money was spent, because the workers were honest. 16 The money from the penalty offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Temple of the Lord, because it belonged to the priests.
A Warning to the Rich
5 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because of the troubles 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, and that rust will be a proof that you were wrong. It will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure for the last days. 4 The pay you did not give the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the workers have been heard by the Lord All-Powerful. 5 Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed. 6 You have judged guilty and then murdered innocent people, who were not against you.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.