Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 Lord, you made me understand this:[a]
You don’t really want sacrifices and grain offerings.
You don’t want burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7 So I said, “Here I am,
ready to do what was written about me in the book.
8 My God, I am happy to do whatever you want.
I never stop thinking about your teachings.”
9 I told the good news of victory[b] to the people in the great assembly.
And, Lord, you know that I will never stop telling that good news.
10 I told about the good things you did.
I did not hide these things in my heart.
I spoke of how you can be trusted to save us.
I did not hide your love and loyalty from those in the great assembly.
11 Lord, do not hide your mercy from me.
Let your love and loyalty always protect me.
12 Troubles have surrounded me.
They are too many to count!
My sins have caught me,
and I cannot escape them.
They are more than the hairs on my head.
I have lost my courage.
13 Please, Lord, rescue me!
Lord, hurry and help me!
14 People are trying to kill me.
Please disappoint them.
Humiliate them completely!
They wanted to hurt me.
Make them run away in shame!
15 May those who make fun of me
be too embarrassed to speak!
16 But may those who come to you be happy and rejoice.
May those who love being saved by you always be able to say, “Praise the Lord!”[c]
17 My Lord, I am only a poor, helpless man,
but please pay attention to me.
You are my helper, the one who can save me.
My God, don’t be too late.
12 “Jacob, listen to me!
Israel, I called you to be my people.
So listen to me!
I am the Beginning,
and I am the End.
13 I made the earth with my own hands.
My right hand made the sky.
And if I call them,
they will come to stand before me.
14 “All of you, come here and listen to me.
Did any of the false gods say these things would happen? No!
The Lord’s friend[a] will do what he wants
to Babylon and the Chaldeans.
15 “I told you that I would call him.
I will lead him,
and I will make him succeed.
16 Come here and listen to me!
I was there when Babylon began as a nation.
And from the beginning, I spoke clearly
so that people could know what I said.”
Now, the Lord God sends me and his Spirit to tell you these things. 17 The Lord, the Savior, the Holy One of Israel, says,
“I am the Lord your God.
I teach you for your own good.
I lead you in the way you should go.
18 If you had obeyed me,
then peace would have come to you
like a full flowing river.
Good things would have come to you again and again,
like the waves of the sea.
19 If you had obeyed me,
you would have had as many children as there are grains of sand.
And they would always have been mine
and would never have been destroyed.”
20 My people, leave Babylon!
My people, run from the Chaldeans!
Tell the news with joy.
Spread the news around the world.
Tell them,
“The Lord rescued his servant Jacob.”
21 They never got thirsty as he led them through the desert,
because he made water flow from a rock.
He split the rock,
and water flowed out.
Jesus Is Not Like Other Religious Leaders(A)
14 Then the followers of John came to Jesus and said, “We and the Pharisees fast often, but your followers don’t ever fast. Why?”
15 Jesus answered, “At a wedding the friends of the bridegroom are not sad while he is with them. They cannot fast then. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them. Then they will fast.
16 “When someone sews a patch over a hole in an old coat, they never use a piece of cloth that has not already been shrunk. If they do, the patch will shrink and pull away from the coat. Then the hole will be worse. 17 Also, people never pour new wine into old wineskins. They would break, the wine would spill out, and the wineskins would be ruined. People always put new wine into new wineskins, which won’t break, and the wine stays good.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International