Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 O God of hosts, restore us
and cause your face to shine that we may be saved.
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You prepared a place before it,
and it took deep root[a] and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
and the mighty cedars with its boughs.
11 It spread its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the river.
12 Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass on the road pluck fruit from it?
13 Swine from the forests devour[b] it
and creatures of the field feed on it.
14 Please return, O God of hosts.
Observe from heaven and see,
and pay attention to this vine,
15 eventhe stalk that your right hand planted,
and concerning the shoot[c] you strengthened for yourself.
14 Is Israel a slave? Or a slave born in a house?[a]
Why has he become plunder?
15 The young lions have roared against him,
they have raised[b] their voices.[c]
And they have made his land as horror;
his cities are destroyed, without[d] an inhabitant.
16 Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes
will shave[e] your skull.[f]
17 Did you not do this to yourself,
by forsaking Yahweh, your God,
at the time of your leading in the way?
18 And now why do you go[g] the way of Egypt
to drink the waters of the Shihor?
And why do you go[h] the way of Assyria
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?[i]
19 Your wickedness will chastise you,
and your apostasies will reprove you.
Therefore know and see that it is evil and bitter,
your forsaking of Yahweh, your God,
and fear of me is not in you,”
declares[j] the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
20 “For from long ago you have broken your yoke,
you tore to pieces your bonds.
And you said, ‘I will not serve!’
But on every high hill and under every leafy tree
you were lying down as a prostitute.
21 Yet I planted you as a choice vine,
all of it a seed of trustworthiness.
How then have you altered before me
into something that is degenerate, the foreign vine?
22 For if you wash with natron,
and you use much soap,[k]
your guilt is sticking as a stain before[l] me,”
declares[m] the Lord Yahweh.
Do Not Be Judged by Human Religious Rules
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or[a] drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, 17 which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about the things which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world? 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” 22 which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, 23 which things although they have[b],[c] to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, do not have any value[d] against the indulgence of the flesh.
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