Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.(A)
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.(B)
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?(C)
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.(D)
14 Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?
Why then has he become plunder?(A)
15 The lions have roared against him;
they have roared loudly.
They have made his land a waste;
his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.(B)
16 Moreover, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes
have broken the crown of your head.(C)
17 Have you not brought this upon yourself
by forsaking the Lord your God,
while he led you in the way?(D)
18 What then do you gain by going to Egypt,
to drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what do you gain by going to Assyria,
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?(E)
19 Your wickedness will punish you,
and your faithlessness will convict you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter
for you to forsake the Lord your God;
the fear of me is not in you,
says the Lord God of hosts.(F)
20 For long ago you broke your yoke
and burst your bonds,
and you said, “I will not serve!”
On every high hill
and under every green tree
you sprawled and prostituted yourself.(G)
21 Yet I planted you as a choice vine
from the purest stock.
How then did you turn degenerate
and become a wild vine?(H)
22 Though you wash yourself with lye
and use much soap,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,
says the Lord God.(I)
16 Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or[a] drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.(A) 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, initiatory visions,[b] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[c] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, grows with a growth that is from God.(B)
Warnings against False Teachers
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental principles[d] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,(C) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.(D) 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.[e]
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.