Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Hallelujah, God helps weak people[a]
113 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Servants of the Lord, praise him!
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Everyone should praise the Lord
now and for ever!
3 The Lord deserves that people praise him,
from where the sun rises in the east,
to where it goes down in the west.
4 The Lord rules over all nations.
His glory is great
higher than the heavens!
5 There is nobody like the Lord our God.
He sits on his throne high above us.
6 He bends down to look below,
at the sky and the earth.
7 He lifts poor people out of the dirt.
And he lifts up weak people from the ashes.
8 He gives them a seat with princes,
the princes who rule his own people.
9 He makes the wife who cannot give birth
into a happy mother of children.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Rules for justice
23 Do not make false reports. Do not tell lies in court to help wicked people.
2 Do not join a group of bad people to do evil things. When you speak in court, tell the truth so that the judges will decide what is right. Do not tell lies to agree with what everyone else says. 3 Do not speak on behalf of a poor man only because you like him.
4 Perhaps you may find your enemy's cow or his donkey when he has lost it. If so, you must give it back to him. 5 Perhaps you may see your enemy's donkey when it is carrying a heavy load. If the donkey has fallen down, do not refuse to give help. Do not leave the donkey there.
6 Always do what is right for your poor people when they stand in front of a judge. 7 Do not help anyone to use lies to accuse another person. Never punish anyone with death if they are not guilty. I will never say that a wicked person is not guilty.
8 Do not accept a bribe. A bribe will hide the truth even from honest people. It can make good people tell lies.
9 Do not be cruel to a foreign person who lives among you. You yourselves know what that feels like. Remember that you lived in Egypt as foreigners.
3 So someone may ask, ‘Does it help a person if they are a Jew, rather than a Gentile? Does it help a person if someone has circumcised them?’ 2 Yes, it helps in many ways. The first is that God chose to give his messages to the Jewish people. 3 But you may say, ‘Some Jews did not believe God's messages as they should have done. Because of that, maybe God will not do what he said he would do.’ 4 No, certainly it does not mean that! God will always do what he says. He will always say what is true, even if everyone in the world should tell lies. This is what is written in the Bible:
‘Your message is true. It shows that you are right.
People may say that you are wrong.
But it will always be clear that you are right.’[a]
5 Maybe some people may say, ‘The wrong things that we do show more clearly that God is always right. So perhaps God is wrong to punish us.’ 6 That is not true! God always decides what is right and fair. That is why he is able to judge everyone in the world.
7 Someone might also say, ‘When I tell lies, that shows how great and good God is. My lies show more clearly that God always says what is true. So God should not say that I am a bad person. He should not punish me.’ 8 But if that is true, you could also say, ‘We should do more and more bad things. Then something good will happen as a result.’ Some people even say that is the message which I teach. But if they say that, they are insulting me. It is right that God should punish those people.
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