Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸ The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness.

⁹ The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created].

¹⁰ All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You [affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You]!

¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power,

¹² To make known to the sons of men God’s mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

⁶ Ho! ho! [Hear and] flee from the land of the north, says the Lord, and from the four winds of the heavens, for to them have I scattered you, says the Lord.

⁷ Ho! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon!

⁸ For thus said the Lord of hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you—for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye:

⁹ Behold, I will swing my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger].

¹⁰ Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.

¹¹ And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you.^(A)

¹² And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land and shall again choose Jerusalem.

¹³ Be still, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused and risen from His holy habitation.^(B)

⁷ What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].^(A)

⁸ But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing].

⁹ Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).^(B)

¹⁰ And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death.^(C)

¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me.

¹² The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³ Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

¹⁴ We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.

¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [^[a]which my moral instinct condemns].

¹⁶ Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

¹⁷ However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]

¹⁹ For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.

²⁰ Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [^[b]fixed and operating in my soul].