Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

131 LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor are my eyes lofty, nor have I proceeded in great matters and things hidden from me.

² Surely, I have behaved like one weaned from his mother and kept silent. In myself, I am as one who is weaned.

³ Let Israel wait on the LORD from henceforth and forever. A song of degrees

¹⁰ Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the Prophet Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.

¹¹ And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Even so, I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, from the neck of all nations within the span of two years.’” And the Prophet Jeremiah went his way.

¹² Then the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the Prophet, (after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the Prophet Jeremiah) saying:

¹³ “Go and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have broken the yokes of wood, but I have made yokes of iron from them.”

¹⁴ ‘For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, so that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel. For they shall serve him. And I have also given him the beasts of the field.”’”

¹⁵ Then the Prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Hear now, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you! But you make this people trust in a lie!

¹⁶ “Therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will cast you from the Earth. This year, you shall die, because you have spoken rebelliously against the LORD.’”

¹⁷ So Hananiah the prophet died the same year, in the seventh month.

3 What, then, is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

² Much in every way! Firstly, because indeed the oracles of God were entrusted to them.

³ For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

⁴ Absolutely not! Indeed, let God be true, and every man a liar! As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and overcome when you are judged.”

⁵ Now, if our unrighteousness exhibits the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous in punishing? (I speak as a man.)

⁶ Absolutely not! Or else, how shall God judge the world?

⁷ For if the truth of God has abounded more through my lie, unto His Glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?

⁸ Rather, why not say (as we are slanderously accused of saying, and as some affirm that we say) “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Their damnation is just.