Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³³ Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I will keep it to the end [steadfastly].

³⁴ Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law; yes, I will observe it with my whole heart.^(A)

³⁵ Make me go in the path of Your commandments, for in them do I delight.

³⁶ Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness (robbery, sensuality, unworthy riches).^(B)

³⁷ Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity (idols and idolatry); and restore me to vigorous life and health in Your ways.

³⁸ Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, which is for those who reverently fear and devotedly worship You.^(C)

³⁹ Turn away my reproach which I fear and dread, for Your ordinances are good.

⁴⁰ Behold, I long for Your precepts; in Your righteousness give me renewed life.

¹⁵ Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁶ Son of man [Ezekiel], behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes [your wife] at a single stroke. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears flow.

¹⁷ Sigh and groan, but not aloud [be silent]; make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban upon your head and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your beard or eat the bread of mourners [furnished by others].

¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning and in the evening my wife died, and I did the next morning as I was commanded.

¹⁹ And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things are supposed to mean to us, that you are acting as you do?

²⁰ Then I answered them, The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹ Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane My sanctuary—[in which you take] pride as your strength, the desire of your eyes, and the pity and sympathy of your soul [that you would spare with your life]; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.

²² And you shall do as I [Ezekiel] have done; you shall not cover your beard nor eat the bread of mourning [brought to you by others],

²³ And your turbans shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities (your guilt) and sigh and groan to one another.^(A)

²⁴ Thus Ezekiel is to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. And when this [destruction of the temple] comes, you shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord God [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].

²⁵ And you, son of man, on the day when I take from them [My temple] their strength and their stronghold, their joy and their glory, the delight of their eyes and their hearts’ chief desire, and also [take] their sons and their daughters—

²⁶ On that day an escaped fugitive shall come to you to cause you to hear of it [the destruction of Jerusalem] with your own ears.

²⁷ In that day your mouth shall be open to him who has escaped, and you shall speak and be no more speechless, and you shall be a sign to them and they shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord.

¹⁵ And how can men [be expected to] preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings! [How welcome is the coming of those who preach the good news of His good things!]^(A)

¹⁶ But they have not all heeded the Gospel; for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed (had faith in) what he has heard from us?^(B)

¹⁷ So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).

¹⁸ But I ask, Have they not heard? Indeed they have; [for the Scripture says] Their voice [that of nature bearing God’s message] has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the far bounds of the world.^(C)

¹⁹ Again I ask, Did Israel not understand? [Did the Jews have no warning that the Gospel was to go forth to the Gentiles, to all the earth?] First, there is Moses who says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.^(D)

²⁰ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek Me; I have shown (revealed) Myself to those who did not [consciously] ask for Me.^(E)

²¹ But of Israel he says, All day long I have stretched out My hands to a people unyielding and disobedient and self-willed [to a faultfinding, contrary, and contradicting people].^(F)