Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
8 Yahweh is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger[a] and great in loyal love.
9 Yahweh is good to all,
and his mercies are over all his works.
10 All your works will praise you, O Yahweh,
and your faithful ones will bless[b] you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and talk of your power,
12 to make known to the children of humankind his mighty deeds,
and the glory of the majesty of his kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.[c]
14 Yahweh upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came[a] to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 “Yahweh was very angry with your ancestors.[b] 3 You must say to them: ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “Return to me,” declares[c] Yahweh of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of hosts. 4 “Do not be like your ancestors,[d] to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “Return from your evil ways and your evil deeds!”’ But they did not hear[e] and they did not pay attention[f] to me,” declares[g] Yahweh. 5 “Your ancestors,[h] where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 However, did not my words and my regulations which I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your ancestors?[i] And they repented and said, ‘Yahweh of hosts planned to do with us according to our ways, and according to our deeds so he has dealt with us.’”’”
Released from the Law through Death
7 Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is master of a person for as long a time as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. 3 Therefore as a result, if she belongs to another man while[a] her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she[b] belongs to another man. 4 So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members, to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, because we[c] have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law.
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