Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 50[a]
The Worship Acceptable to God
1 A psalm of Asaph.[b]
[c]The Lord, the God of gods,[d]
has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God is coming, and he will not be silent;
he is preceded by a devouring fire,
and a raging tempest surrounds him.[e]
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth to judge his people:
5 “Gather before me my faithful servants
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”[f]
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice,
for God himself is the judge.[g] Selah
7 [h]“Listen, my people, and I will speak.
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are constantly before me.
9 “I will not accept a young bull from your homes
or goats from your folds.
10 For all the living creatures of the forest are mine,
animals by the thousands on my hills.
11 I know every bird of the air,
and whatever moves in the fields belongs to me.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that it holds.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Then if you cry out to me in time of trouble,
I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”
16 [i]But to the wicked God says:
“How can you recite my statutes
or profess my covenant on your lips?
17 For you loathe my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 “When you meet a thief, you join him;
you revel in the company of adulterers.
19 You employ your mouth for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 “You willingly speak against your brother
and slander the child of your own mother.
21 When you do such things, can I remain silent?
Do you think that I am[j] like you?
I will correct you
and set the charge before your face.
22 “Remember this, you who forget God,[k]
lest I tear you to pieces
and there be no one to rescue you.
23 He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me;
to him who follows my way
I will show the salvation of God.”
Chapter 13[a]
Separation from Aliens. 1 On that day they were reading aloud to the people from the Book of Moses, and there it was found written: “No Ammonite or Moabite should ever be allowed to enter the assembly of God, 2 since they had not come to welcome the Israelites with food and water, but they rather hired Balaam to curse them, even though our God turned the curse into a blessing.” 3 When the people heard the law, they excluded from Israel all those of foreign descent.
23 Mixed Marriages. In those days also I saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, but none of them could speak the language of the Jews.
25 Thereupon I reprimanded them and I cursed them, beat some of them and pulled out their hair, and I made them swear in the name of God: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons or to take away any of their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.
26 “Did not King Solomon of Israel sin because of such women? Among all the nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet even he was led into sin[a] by foreign women. 27 Must we now hear that you have committed this very grave offense, breaking faith with our God by marrying foreign women?”
28 One of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. I drove him from my presence.
29 Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priests and the Levites.
30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I drew up the regulations for the priests and the Levites, defining the duties of their office. 31 I also provided for the deliveries of wood at specific times and for the firstfruits.
Remember this in my favor, O my God.
9 In my letter, I wrote to you not to associate with people who are leading immoral lives.[a] 10 Obviously, I was not referring to contact with people in the world who are immoral or with those who are greedy or thieves or worshipers of false gods, since to do this you would have to leave the world. 11 What I really meant to get across was that you should not associate with any brother or sister who is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard or a robber. You should not even eat with such a person.
12 It is no concern of mine to judge those who are outside the fold.[b] It is your responsibility to judge those who are inside. 13 God will pass judgment on the outsiders. Banish the evil person from your midst.
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