Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴ Hear this, O you who would swallow up and trample down the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail and come to an end,

⁵ Saying, When will the New Moon festival be past that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath that we may offer wheat for sale, making the ephah [measure] small and the shekel [measure] great and falsifying the scales by deceit,

⁶ That we may buy [into slavery] the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; yes, and sell the refuse of the wheat [as if it were good grade]?

⁷ The Lord has sworn by [Himself Who is] the Glory and Pride of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their [rebellious] deeds.

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!)

2 First of all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,

² For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way.

³ For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior,

⁴ Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth.

⁵ For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

⁶ Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time.

⁷ And of this matter I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (special messenger)—I am speaking the truth in Christ, I do not falsify [when I say this]—a teacher of the Gentiles in [the realm of] faith and truth.

16 Also [Jesus] said to the disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a ^[a]manager of his estate, and accusations [against this man] were brought to him, that he was squandering his [master’s] possessions.

² And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management [of my affairs], for you can be [my] manager no longer.

³ And the manager of the estate said to himself, What shall I do, seeing that my master is taking the management away from me? I am not able to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴ I have come to know what I will do, so that they [my master’s debtors] may accept and welcome me into their houses when I am put out of the management.

⁵ So he summoned his master’s debtors one by one, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master?

⁶ He said, A hundred measures [about 900 gallons] of oil. And he said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of ^[b]obligation, and sit down quickly and write fifty [about 450 gallons].

⁷ After that he said to another, And how much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures [about 900 bushels] of wheat. He said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of ^[c]obligation, and write eighty [about 700 bushels].

⁸ And [his] master praised the dishonest (unjust) manager for acting ^[d]shrewdly and ^[e]prudently; for the sons of this age are shrewder and more prudent and wiser in [^[f]relation to] their own generation [to their own age and ^[g]kind] than are the sons of light.

⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon (^[h]deceitful riches, money, possessions), so that when it fails, they [those you have favored] may receive and welcome you into the everlasting habitations (dwellings).

¹⁰ He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much.

¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (^[i]deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches?

¹² And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, ^[j]the true riches]?

¹³ No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or ^[k]anything in which you trust and on which you rely).