Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 Teach us to number our days
so that we may truly live and achieve wisdom.
13 How long will we wait here alone?
Return, O Eternal One, with mercy.
Rescue Your servants with compassion.
14 With every sun’s rising, surprise us with Your love,
satisfy us with Your kindness.
Then we will sing with joy and celebrate every day we are alive.
15 You have spent many days afflicting us with pain and sorrow;
now match those with years of unspent joy.
16 Let Your work of love be on display for all Your servants;
let Your children see Your majesty.
17 And then let the beauty and grace of the Lord—our God—rest upon us
and bring success to all we do;
yes, bring success to all we do!
13 Listen to what I am saying, and testify against Jacob’s house.
The Eternal Lord, the Commander of heavenly armies, says,
14 Eternal One: On the day I punish Israel for its wrongdoing,
I will also fall upon the altars of Bethel, that center of cultic worship,
Where the horns of the altar will be hacked off
and topple to the ground, making their illegal sacrifice impossible.
15 I will demolish the winter house of the rich and the summer house as well;
their palaces decorated with ivory will be torn down,
And their fine mansions will be laid low.
So says the Eternal One.
4 Hear this word, you cows on the fertile pastures of Bashan,
who grow fat and happy on the hillsides of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor and destroy the needy
while you order your husbands to do your own work.
2 The Eternal Lord has made a vow by His own holiness:
Eternal One: The day will come when your enemy will drag you away
with hooks like sides of beef—will subdue you with fishhooks, each and every one of you.
3 You’ll be forced to leave through breached walls,
each one of you taken straight out and cast into Harmon, a place of exile.
4 I dare you: Come to My shrine at Bethel and do wrong;
come, worship Me at Gilgal, and watch your sins multiply.
Go ahead, bring your ritual sacrifices there every morning
and ten percent of your earnings every three days.
5 Burn a thanksgiving offering of leavened bread,
boast about your freewill offerings, and let everyone know
because these things are what you love to do, people of Israel.
So says the Eternal Lord.
15 Some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to ask Jesus a question.
Scribes and Pharisees: 2 The law of Moses has always held that one must ritually wash his hands before eating. Why don’t Your disciples observe this tradition?
3 Jesus turned the Pharisees’ question back on them.
Jesus: Why do you violate God’s command because of your tradition? 4 God said, “Honor your father and mother.[a] Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”[b] 5-6 But you say that one need no longer honor his parents so long as he says to them, “What you might have gained from me, I now give to the glory of God.” Haven’t you let your tradition trump the word of God? 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied,
8 People honor Me with their lips,
but their hearts are nowhere near Me.
9 Because they elevate mere human ritual to the status of law,
their worship of Me is a meaningless sham.[c]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.