Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶⁵ You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your promise.

⁶⁶ Teach me good judgment, wise and right discernment, and knowledge, for I have believed (trusted, relied on, and clung to) Your commandments.

⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now Your word do I keep [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].

⁶⁸ You are good and kind and do good; teach me Your statutes.

⁶⁹ The arrogant and godless have put together a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.

⁷⁰ Their hearts are as fat as grease [their minds are dull and brutal], but I delight in Your law.

⁷¹ It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

⁷² The law from Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

²⁷ If any one of the common people sins unwittingly in doing anything the Lord has commanded not to be done, and is guilty,

²⁸ When the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.

²⁹ The offender shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill [it] at the place of the burnt offering.

³⁰ And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and shall pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.

³¹ And all the fat of it he shall take away, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet and satisfying fragrance to the Lord; and the priest shall make atonement for [the man], and he shall be forgiven.

¹⁴ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁵ If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unwittingly in the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring his trespass or guilt offering to the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued by you in shekels of silver, that is, the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass or guilt offering.

¹⁶ And he shall make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing, and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass or guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.

¹¹ Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul.

¹² Conduct yourselves properly (honorably, righteously) among the Gentiles, so that, although they may slander you as evildoers, [yet] they may by witnessing your good deeds [come to] glorify God in the day of inspection [^[a]when God shall look upon you wanderers as a pastor or shepherd looks over his flock].

¹³ Be submissive to every human institution and authority for the sake of the Lord, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,

¹⁴ Or to governors as sent by him to bring vengeance (punishment, justice) to those who do wrong and to encourage those who do good service.

¹⁵ For it is God’s will and intention that by doing right [your good and honest lives] should silence (muzzle, gag) the ignorant charges and ill-informed criticisms of foolish persons.

¹⁶ [Live] as free people, [yet] without employing your freedom as a pretext for wickedness; but [live at all times] as servants of God.

¹⁷ Show respect for all men [treat them honorably]. Love the brotherhood (the Christian fraternity of which Christ is the Head). Reverence God. Honor the emperor.