Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Mary’s Song of Praise
46 And Mary[a] said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,(A)
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,(B)
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,(C)
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;(D)
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.(E)
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.(F)
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;(G)
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.(H)
54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,(I)
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”(J)
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.(A) 20 In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”(B)
21 The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.(C) 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and remain there forever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.”[a](D) 23 Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish your[b] word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.(E) 24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull,[c] an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and the child was young.(F) 25 Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the child to Eli.(G) 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the Lord.(H) 27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him.(I) 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.” And they worshiped the Lord there.(J)
Mediator of a Better Covenant
8 Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,(A) 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent[a] that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.(B) 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.(C) 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already those[b] who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They offer worship in a sanctuary that is[c] a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one, just as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tent.[d] For, God[e] said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”(D) 6 But Jesus[f] has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises.(E) 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.(F)
8 God[g] finds fault with them when he says:
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,(G)
9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
for they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.(H)
11 And they shall not teach one another
or say to each other,[h] ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.(I)
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins[i] no more.”(J)
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.(K)
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.