Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’s sake; because Thy mercy is good, deliver Thou me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach also unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! O save me according to Thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is Thy hand—that Thou, Lord, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but Thou bless; when they arise let them be ashamed, but let Thy servant rejoice.
29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.
20 And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before me.
2 Then came the word of the Lord unto me, saying,
3 “Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Have ye come to inquire of Me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.’
4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers;
5 and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, “I am the Lord your God”—
6 on the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands,
7 then said I unto them: “Cast away every man of ye the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
8 But they rebelled against Me and would not hearken unto Me. They did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. “‘Then I said, “I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.”
9 But I wrought for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
10 Therefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.
11 And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
12 Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them.
13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They walked not in My statutes and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly polluted. “‘Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them.
14 But I wrought for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.
15 Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands,
16 because they despised My judgments and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
17 Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
7 Therefore as the Holy Ghost saith: “Today if ye will hear His voice,
8 harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘They do always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter into My rest.’”
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is still called “today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the confidence we had in the beginning steadfast unto the end,
15 while it is said, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke, however not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they should not enter into His rest, but to those who believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
4 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left to us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter into rest, as He said, “As I have sworn in My wrath, ‘If they shall enter into My rest’”—although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”
5 And again in this place: “If they shall enter into My rest”—.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter in because of unbelief,
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David “today,” after so long a time, as it is said, “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterwards have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.
10 For he that has entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall according to the same example of unbelief.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.