Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the director: A song of David.
40 I called[a] to the Lord, and he heard me.
He heard my cries.
2 He lifted me out of the grave.[b]
He lifted me from that muddy place.[c]
He picked me up, put me on solid ground,
and kept my feet from slipping.
3 He put a new song[d] in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see what he did and worship him.
They will put their trust in the Lord.
4 Great blessings belong to those who trust in the Lord,
for those who do not turn to demons and false gods[e] for help.
5 Lord my God, you have done many amazing things!
You have made great plans for us—too many to list.
I could talk on and on about them,
because there are too many to count.
6 Lord, you made me understand this:[f]
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.”
25 “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not during her time of monthly bleeding, or if she has a discharge after that time, she will be unclean, just as during the time of her monthly bleeding. She will be unclean for as long as she has a discharge. 26 Any bed she lies on during the time of her discharge will be like her bed during the time of her monthly bleeding. Everything she sits on will be unclean, just as it is during the time she is unclean from her monthly bleeding. 27 Whoever touches these things will be unclean until evening. They must wash their own clothes and bathe in water. 28 After the woman’s discharge stops, she must wait seven days. After that she will be clean. 29 Then on the eighth day, she must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. 30 Then the priest must offer one bird for a sin offering and the other bird for a burnt offering. In this way the priest will make her pure before the Lord.
31 “So you must warn the Israelites about being unclean. If you don’t warn the people, they might make my Holy Tent unclean. And then they would have to die!”
22 The Lord God said to Moses, 2 “Tell Aaron and his sons: The gifts that the Israelites bring to me become holy. They belong to me, so you priests must show respect for these things. If you don’t, you will show that you don’t respect my holy name. I am the Lord. 3 If any one of your descendants touches these things, that person will become unclean. That person must be separated from me. The Israelites gave these things to me. I am the Lord.
4 “If any of Aaron’s descendants has a serious skin disease[a] or a discharge, he cannot eat the holy food until he becomes clean. This rule is for any priest who becomes unclean. That priest can become unclean from a dead body or from his own semen. 5 He can also become unclean if he touches any unclean crawling animal. And he can become unclean if he touches an unclean person. It doesn’t matter what made that person unclean. 6 If he touches any of these things, he will become unclean until evening. He must not eat any of the holy food. Even if he washes with water, he cannot eat the holy food. 7 He will be clean only after the sun goes down. Then he can eat the holy food because it is his share.
8 “A priest must not eat any animal that died by itself or that was killed by wild animals. If he eats that animal, he will be unclean. I am the Lord.
9 “The priests must be very careful when it comes time to serve me. They must be careful not to dishonor the holy things. If they are careful, they will not die. I, the Lord, have separated them from the rest of the people for this special job.
We Are God’s Temple
14 You are not the same as those who don’t believe. So don’t join yourselves to them. Good and evil don’t belong together. Light and darkness cannot share the same room. 15 How can there be any unity between Christ and the devil[a]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 God’s temple[b] cannot have anything to do with idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As God said,
“I will live with them
and walk with them;
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.” (A)
17 “So come away from those people
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch anything that is not clean,
and I will accept you.” (B)
18 “I will be your father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord All-Powerful.” (C)
7 Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So we should make ourselves pure—free from anything that makes our body or our soul unclean. Our respect for God should make us try to be completely holy in the way we live.
Paul’s Joy
2 Open your hearts to us. We have not done wrong to anyone or caused harm to anyone. And we have not cheated anyone.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International