Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

32 ^1-2 What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.

³ There was a time when I wouldn’t admit what a sinner I was.^[a] But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration. ⁴ All day and all night your hand was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water on a sunny day ⁵ until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, “I will confess them to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

⁶ Now I say that each believer should confess his sins to God when he is aware of them, while there is time to be forgiven. Judgment will not touch him^[b] if he does.

⁷ You are my hiding place from every storm of life; you even keep me from getting into trouble! You surround me with songs of victory. ⁸ I will instruct you (says the Lord) and guide you along the best pathway for your life; I will advise you and watch your progress. ⁹ Don’t be like a senseless horse or mule that has to have a bit in its mouth to keep it in line!

¹⁰ Many sorrows come to the wicked, but abiding love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. ¹¹ So rejoice in him, all those who are his,^[c] and shout for joy, all those who try to obey him.

4 Then Adam had sexual intercourse with Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Cain (meaning “I have created”). For, as she said, “With God’s help, I have created a man!” ² Her next child was his brother, Abel.

Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. ³ At harvest time Cain brought the Lord a gift of his farm produce, ⁴ and Abel brought the fatty cuts of meat from his best lambs, and presented them to the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abel’s offering, ⁵ but not Cain’s. This made Cain both dejected and very angry, and his face grew dark with fury.

⁶ “Why are you angry?” the Lord asked him. “Why is your face so dark with rage? ⁷ It can be bright with joy if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it!”

⁸ One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were together there, Cain attacked and killed his brother.

⁹ But afterwards the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”

“How should I know?” Cain retorted. “Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “Your brother’s blood calls to me from the ground. What have you done? ¹¹ You are hereby banished from this ground which you have defiled with your brother’s blood. ¹² No longer will it yield crops for you, even if you toil on it forever! From now on you will be a fugitive and a tramp upon the earth, wandering from place to place.”

¹³ Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴ For you have banished me from my farm and from you, and made me a fugitive and a tramp; and everyone who sees me will try to kill me.”

¹⁵ The Lord replied, “They won’t kill you, for I will give seven times your punishment to anyone who does.” Then the Lord put an identifying mark on Cain as a warning not to kill him. ¹⁶ So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁴ But Jesus the Son of God is our great High Priest who has gone to heaven itself to help us; therefore let us never stop trusting him. ¹⁵ This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned. ¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need.

5 ^1-3 The Jewish high priest is merely a man like anyone else, but he is chosen to speak for all other men in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers to him the blood of animals that are sacrificed to cover the sins of the people and his own sins too. And because he is a man, he can deal gently with other men, though they are foolish and ignorant, for he, too, is surrounded with the same temptations and understands their problems very well.

⁴ Another thing to remember is that no one can be a high priest just because he wants to be. He has to be called by God for this work in the same way God chose Aaron.

⁵ That is why Christ did not elect himself to the honor of being High Priest; no, he was chosen by God. God said to him, “My Son, today I have honored you.”^{[a] 6} And another time God said to him, “You have been chosen to be a priest forever, with the same rank as Melchizedek.”

⁷ Yet while Christ was here on earth he pleaded with God, praying with tears and agony of soul to the only one who would save him from premature^[b] death. And God heard his prayers because of his strong desire to obey God at all times.

⁸ And even though Jesus was God’s Son, he had to learn from experience what it was like to obey when obeying meant suffering. ⁹ It was after he had proved himself perfect in this experience that Jesus became the Giver of eternal salvation to all those who obey him. ¹⁰ For remember that God has chosen him to be a High Priest with the same rank as Melchizedek.