Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Yahweh Is a Fortress

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[a]

Confirming the Covenant

24 And to Moses he said, “Go up to Yahweh—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel—and you will worship at a distance. ² And Moses alone^[a] will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him.”

³ And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.”

⁴ And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men from the Israelites,^[b] and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices as fellowship offerings to Yahweh using bulls. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen.”^{[c] 8} And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Jews also Condemned by the Law

¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God ¹⁸ and know his will and approve the things that are superior, because you^[a] are instructed by the law, ¹⁹ and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth in the law. ²¹ Therefore, the one who teaches someone else, do you not teach yourself? The one who preaches not to steal, do you steal? ²² The one who says not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The one who abhors idols, do you rob temples? ²³ Who boast in the law, by the transgression of the law you dishonor God!^{[b] 24} For just as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”^[c]

²⁵ For circumcision is of value if you do the law, but if you should be a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, if the uncircumcised person follows the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be credited for circumcision? ²⁷ And the uncircumcised person by nature who carries out the law will judge you who, though provided with the precise written code^[d] and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸ For the Jew is not one outwardly^[e], nor is circumcision outwardly^[f], in the flesh. ²⁹ But the Jew is one inwardly^[g], and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, whose praise is not from people but from God.