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.
33 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak to your people [the Israelite captives in Babylon] and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take a man from among them and make him their watchman,
3 If when he sees the sword coming upon the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people,
4 Then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning shall save his life.
6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, he is taken away in and for his perversity and iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
30 Saying, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have aided them in shedding the blood of the prophets.
31 Thus you are testifying against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ sins to the brim [so [a]that nothing may be wanting to a full measure].
33 You serpents! You spawn of vipers! How can you escape the [b]penalty to be suffered in hell (Gehenna)?
34 Because of this, take notice: I am sending you prophets and wise men (interpreters and teachers) and scribes (men learned in the Mosaic Law and the Prophets); some of them you will kill, even crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue and persecute from town to town,
35 So that upon your heads may come all the blood of the righteous ([c]those who correspond to the divine standard of right) shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar [of burnt offering].(A)
36 Truly I declare to you, all these [[d]evil, calamitous times] will come upon this generation.(B)
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