Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Heth

Teth

Yodh

Kaph

Lamedh

Mem

Samekh

Return to Me, Declares Yahweh

1 In the eighth month of the second year of ^(A)Darius, the word of ^[a]Yahweh came to ^(B)Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of ^(C)Iddo, saying, ² “Yahweh was very ^(D)wrathful against your fathers. ³ Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “^(E)Return to Me,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts. ⁴ “Do not be ^(F)like your fathers, to whom the ^(G)former prophets called out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “^(H)Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did ^(I)not listen or give heed to Me,” declares Yahweh. ⁵ “Your ^(J)fathers, where are they? And the ^(K)prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My slaves the prophets, ^(L)overtake your fathers? Then they ^[b]returned and said, ‘^(M)As Yahweh of hosts purposed to do to us in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so He has done with us.’”’”

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, ^(A)brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? ² For ^(B)the married woman has been bound by law to her ^[a]husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ^[b]concerning the husband. ³ So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴ So, my brothers, you also were ^(C)made to die ^(D)to the Law ^(E)through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were ^(F)in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were ^(G)aroused by the Law, were at work ^(H)in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been ^(I)released from the Law, having ^(J)died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in ^(K)newness of ^[c](L)the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.