Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 [a]But you, O Lord, my God,
treat me kindly for your name’s sake;[b]
deliver me because of your overwhelming kindness.
22 For I am poor and needy,[c]
and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am fading away[d] like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting;
my flesh is wasting away.
25 I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;
upon seeing me, they toss their heads.[e]
26 Come to my aid, O Lord, my God;
save me because of your kindness.[f]
27 Let them know that your hand has done this,
that you, O Lord, have accomplished it.
28 When they curse, you will bless;
when they attack, they will be put to shame,
and your servant will rejoice.[g]
29 My accusers will be clothed in disgrace,
wrapped in their shame as in a cloak.
30 I will thank the Lord with my lips,
and before all the people I will praise him.[h]
31 For he stands at the right hand of the poor
to save him from his accusers who pass judgment on him.[i]
Chapter 20
History of Israel’s Infidelity. 1 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to consult the Lord and were sitting with me.
2 Then this word of the Lord came to me: 3 Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Have you come to consult me? As I live, I will refuse to be consulted by you, says the Lord God.
4 Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Then make clear to them the abominations of their ancestors, 5 and say to them: The Lord says: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob and revealed myself to the land of Egypt, declaring: I am the Lord, your God.
6 On that day I swore that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had personally chosen for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the fairest of all lands. 7 And I said to them, “Each one of you must cast away the loathsome things upon which your eyes have feasted and refuse to defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.”
8 However, they rebelled against me and refused to listen to me. Not a single one of them cast aside the loathsome things that seemed so desirable, nor did any of them forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I resolved to pour out my wrath on them, and to vent my anger against them in the land of Egypt. 9 However, for the sake of my name I acted in such a way that it would not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, and I promised to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
10 Therefore, I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11 I gave them my laws and made known to them my ordinances according to the observance of which they would live. 12 And I also gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between me and them so that they would know that I, the Lord, made them holy.
13 However, the house of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They refused to obey my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances whose observance is necessary for life. Furthermore, they profaned my Sabbaths. I then resolved to pour out my fury on them in the desert and destroy them. 14 But I acted for the sake of my name so that it would not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose presence I had brought them out.
15 Furthermore, I swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the fairest of all lands, 16 because they rejected my ordinances, they did not observe my statutes, and they desecrated my Sabbaths, for their hearts were devoted to their idols. 17 Nevertheless, I pitied them too much to destroy them, and I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.
The “Today” of God.[a] 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 harden not your hearts as at the rebellion,
in the day of testing in the desert,
9 where your ancestors tried me and tested me
though they had seen what I could do 10 for forty years.
As a result I became angered with that generation,
and I said, ‘Their hearts have always gone astray,
and they do not know my ways.’
11 Therefore, I swore in my anger,
‘They will never enter into my rest.’ ”
12 Take care, brethren, that none of you will ever have an evil and unbelieving heart that will cause you to forsake the living God. 13 Rather, encourage each other every day, as long as it is today, so that none of you will become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we will become partners with Christ only if we maintain firmly until the end the confidence we originally had, 15 as it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.”
16 Who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Were they not all those whom Moses had led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angered for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned and whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter into his rest, if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see clearly that they were unable to enter because of their refusal to believe.
Chapter 4
The Sabbath Rest of God’s People.[b] 1 Therefore, since the promise of entering into his rest endures, we must take care that none of you be judged to have fallen short. 2 For we too have received the good news just as they did, but the message they heard was of no benefit to them because those who listened did not combine it with faith. 3 For we who have faith enter into that rest, just as God has said:
“Therefore, I swore in my anger,
‘They will never enter into my rest.’ ”
Yet God’s work had been finished at the beginning of the world. 4 For somewhere he says in reference to the seventh day, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And in this passage it says, “They will never enter into my rest.”
6 Seeing, therefore, that some will enter into that rest, and since those who first had received the good news failed to enter because of their refusal to believe, 7 God once more set a day—“today”—when long afterward he spoke through David, as already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.”
8 Now if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken afterward of another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, 10 since those who enter into God’s rest also cease from their own labors as God did from his. 11 Let us then make every effort to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall by following that example of refusing to believe.
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