Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 146

The God of Compassion

Debts Canceled

15 “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.^{(A) 2} This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor^[a] is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed. ³ You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.

⁴ “There will be no poor among you, however, because the Lord is certain to bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance^(B)— ⁵ if only you obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today. ⁶ When the Lord your God blesses you as He has promised you, you will lend to many nations but not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

Lending to the Poor

⁷ “If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your gates in the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. ⁸ Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. ⁹ Be careful that there isn’t this wicked thought in your heart, ‘The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,’ and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty. ¹⁰ Give to him, and don’t have a stingy heart^[b] when you give, and because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you do.^{[c] 11} For there will never cease to be poor people in the land;^(C) that is why I am commanding you, ‘You must willingly open your hand to your afflicted and poor brother in your land.’

¹⁵ Therefore, He is the mediator^(A) of a new covenant,^[a](B) so that those who are called might receive the promise^(C) of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.^{(D) 16} Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living. ¹⁸ That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. ¹⁹ For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people,^{(E) 20} saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.^{(F)[b] 21} In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood.^{(G) 22} According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.^(H)

²³ Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these.^{(I) 24} For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model^[c] of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us.^(J)