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.
16 After the death of Aaron’s two sons, when they drew near before the Lord [offered false fire] and died,(A)
2 The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother he [a]must not come at all times into the Holy of Holies within the veil before the mercy seat upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.(B)
3 But Aaron shall come into the holy enclosure in this way: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
4 He shall put on the holy linen undergarment, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his body, and be girded with the linen girdle or sash, and with the linen turban or miter shall he be attired; these are the holy garments; he shall bathe his body in water and then put them on.
5 He shall take [at the expense] of the congregation of the Israelites two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
20 And when he has finished atoning for the Holy of Holies and the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], he shall present the live goat;
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat [the sin-bearer], and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man [a]who is timely (ready, fit).
22 The goat shall bear upon himself all their iniquities, carrying them to a land cut off (a land of forgetfulness and separation, not inhabited)! And the man leading it shall let the goat go in the wilderness.(A)
23 Aaron shall come into the Tent of Meeting and put off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy of Holies, and leave them there;
24 And he shall bathe his body with water in a sacred place and put on his garments, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and that of the people, and make atonement for himself and for them.
25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn upon the altar.
26 The man who led the sin-bearing goat out and let him go for Azazel or removal shall wash his clothes and bathe his body, and afterward he may come into the camp.
27 The bull and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy of Holies, shall be carried forth without the camp; their skins, their flesh, and their dung shall be burned with fire.(B)
28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
18 In the early dawn the next morning, as He was coming back to the city, He was hungry.
19 And as He saw [a]one single leafy fig tree [b]above the roadside, He went to it but He found nothing but leaves on it [[c]seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And He said to it, Never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered up at once.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled greatly and asked, How is it that the fig tree has withered away all at once?
21 And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith (a [d]firm relying trust) and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done.
22 And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation