Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

146 Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah, O my soul.

² As long as I live will I praise Jehovah; I will sing psalms unto my God while I have my being.

³ Put not confidence in nobles, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

⁴ His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his purposes perish.

⁵ Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God,

⁶ Who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is therein; who keepeth truth for ever;

⁷ Who executeth judgment for the oppressed, who giveth bread to the hungry. Jehovah looseth the prisoners;

⁸ Jehovah openeth [the eyes of] the blind; Jehovah raiseth up them that are bowed down; Jehovah loveth the righteous;

⁹ Jehovah preserveth the strangers; he lifteth up the fatherless and the widow; but the way of the wicked doth he subvert.

¹⁰ Jehovah will reign for ever, [even] thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halleluiah!

15 At the end of seven years thou shalt make a release,

² and this is the manner of the release: Every creditor shall relax his hand from the loan which he hath lent unto his neighbour; he shall not demand it of his neighbour, or of his brother; for a release to Jehovah hath been proclaimed.

³ Of the foreigner thou mayest demand it; but what is thine with thy brother thy hand shall release;

⁴ save when there shall be no one in need among you; for Jehovah will greatly bless thee in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it,

⁵ if thou only diligently hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all this commandment which I command thee this day.

⁶ For Jehovah thy God will bless thee, as he promised thee; and thou shalt lend on pledge to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.

⁷ If there be amongst you a poor man, any one of thy brethren in one of thy gates, in thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy brother in need;

⁸ but thou shalt open thy hand bountifully unto him, and shalt certainly lend him on pledge what is sufficient for his need, [in that] which he lacketh.

⁹ Beware that there be not a wicked thought in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry against thee to Jehovah, and it be sin in thee.

¹⁰ Thou shalt bountifully give unto him, and thy heart shall not be evil-disposed when thou givest unto him; because for this thing Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy works, and in all the business of thy hand.

¹¹ For the needy shall never cease from within the land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand bountifully unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy, in thy land.

¹⁵ And for this reason he is mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

¹⁶ (For where [there is] a testament, the death of the testator must needs come in.

¹⁷ For a testament [is] of force when men are dead, since it is in no way of force while the testator is alive.)

¹⁸ Whence neither the first was inaugurated without blood.

¹⁹ For every commandment having been spoken according to [the] law by Moses to all the people; having taken the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

²⁰ saying, This [is] the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined to you.

²¹ And the tabernacle too and all the vessels of service he sprinkled in like manner with blood;

²² and almost all things are purified with blood according to the law, and without blood-shedding there is no remission.

²³ [It was] necessary then that the figurative representations of the things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with sacrifices better than these.

²⁴ For the Christ is not entered into holy places made with hand, figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us: