Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

146 Praise the LORD, O my soul!

² I will praise the LORD during my life. As long as I have any being, I will sing to my God.

³ Do not put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, for there is no help in him.

⁴ His breath departs. He returns to his earth. Then, his thoughts perish.

⁵ Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob for his help; whose hope is in the LORD his God,

⁶ Who made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that therein is. Who keeps his fidelity forever.

⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners.

⁸ The LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up the crooked. The LORD loves the righteous.

⁹ The LORD keeps the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and widow; but He overthrows the way of the wicked.

¹⁰ The LORD shall reign forever! O Zion, your God endures from generation to generation. Praise the LORD!

15 “At the term of seven years, you shall make a release.

² “And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall cancel the loan of his hand which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not ask for it again from his neighbor, nor from his brother. For the LORD’s release is proclaimed.

³ “You may require it from a stranger. But that which you have with your brother, your hand shall release,

⁴ “except when there shall be no poor with you. For the LORD shall bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, to possess it,

⁵ “so that you obey the Voice of the LORD your God, to observe and do all these Commandments which I command you this day.

⁶ “For the LORD your God has blessed you, as He has promised you. And you shall lend to many nations. But you yourself shall not borrow. And you shall reign over many nations. And they shall not reign over you.

⁷ “If one of your brothers with you is poor—within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you—you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

⁸ “But you shall open your hand to him and shall sufficiently lend to him for his need which he has.

⁹ “Beware that there is not a wicked thought in your heart, to say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand’, and it grieves you to look on your poor brother. And you give him nothing. And he cries to the LORD against you, so that sin is in you.

¹⁰ “You shall give to him. And do not let it grieve your heart to give to him. For because of this the LORD your God shall bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.

¹¹ “Because there shall always be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor in your land.’

¹⁵ And because of this, He is the Mediator of the new Testament, so that through death (which was for the redemption of the transgressions in the former Testament) those who were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

¹⁶ For where there is a Testament, there must be the death of the one who made it.

¹⁷ For the Testament is confirmed after death. It is still of no force so long as the one who made it lives.

¹⁸ Therefore, nor was the first ordained without blood.

¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every precept to the people (according to the Law), he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and purple wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people,

²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the Testament which God has commanded you.”

²¹ Moreover, he likewise sprinkled the Tabernacle with blood, and all the implements of ministry.

²² And by the Law, almost all things are purged with blood. And there is no remission without shedding of blood.

²³ It was necessary, then, that the representations of heavenly things should be purified with such things. But the heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than these.

²⁴ For Christ has not entered into the Holy Places that are made with hands - which are representations of the true things - but into Heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God for us.