Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 113

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!

² Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever

³ From the rising of the sun to the going down of it and from east to west, the name of the Lord is to be praised!

⁴ The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens!

⁵ Who is like the Lord our God, Who has His seat on high,

⁶ Who humbles Himself to regard the heavens and the earth!^(A)

⁷ [The Lord] raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap and the dung hill,

⁸ That He may seat them with princes, even with the princes of His people.

⁹ He makes the barren woman to be a homemaker and a joyful mother of [spiritual] children. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

23 You shall not repeat or raise a false report; you shall not join with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

² You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you bear witness at a trial so as to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

³ Neither shall you be partial to a poor man in his trial [just because he is poor].

⁴ If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

⁵ If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying [helpless] under his load, you shall refrain from leaving the man to cope with it alone; you shall help him to release the animal.

⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his cause.

⁷ Keep far from a false matter and [be very careful] not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify and acquit the wicked.

⁸ You shall take no bribe, for the bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the testimony and the cause of the righteous.

⁹ Also you shall not oppress a temporary resident, for you know the heart of a stranger and sojourner, seeing you were strangers and sojourners in Egypt.

3 Then what advantage remains to the Jew? [How is he favored?] Or what is the value or benefit of circumcision?

² Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the brief communications, the intentions, the utterances) of God.^(A)

³ What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]?

⁴ By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].^(B)

⁵ But if our unrighteousness thus establishes and exhibits the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust and wrong to inflict His wrath upon us [Jews]? I speak in a [purely] human way.

⁶ By no means! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

⁷ But [you say] if through my falsehood God’s integrity is magnified and advertised and abounds to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner?

⁸ And why should we not do evil that good may come?—as some slanderously charge us with teaching. Such [false teaching] is justly condemned by them.