Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 30

A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the Temple. [A Psalm] of David.

¹ I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

² O Lord my God, I cried to You and You have healed me.

³ O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the place of the dead); You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit (the grave).

⁴ Sing to the Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

⁵ For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime or in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.^(A)

⁶ As for me, in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

⁷ By Your favor, O Lord, You have established me as a strong mountain; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

⁸ I cried to You, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication.

⁹ What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit (the grave)? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth and faithfulness to men?

¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

¹² To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

14 And the Lord said to Moses,

² This shall be the law of the leper on the day when he is to be pronounced clean: he shall be brought to the priest [at a meeting place outside the camp];

³ The priest shall go out of the camp [to meet him]; and [he] shall examine him, and if the disease is healed in the leper,

⁴ Then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet [material] and hyssop.^(A)

⁵ And the priest shall command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over fresh, running water.

⁶ As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood, and the scarlet [material], and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird killed over the running water;

⁷ And he shall sprinkle [the blood] on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living bird into the open field.^(B)

⁸ He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but stay outside his tent seven days.

⁹ But on the seventh day he shall shave all his hair off his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and his [body]; and he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and be clean.

¹⁰ On the eighth day he shall take two he-lambs without blemish and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.

¹¹ And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord at the door of the Tent of Meeting;

¹² The priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt or trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.

¹³ He shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the sacred place [the court of the tabernacle]; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the guilt or trespass offering; it is most holy;

¹⁴ And the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt or trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.

¹⁵ And the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand;

¹⁶ And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord;

¹⁷ And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt or trespass offering [which he has previously placed in each of these places].

¹⁸ And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him who is to be cleansed and make atonement for him before the Lord.

¹⁹ And the priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness, and afterward kill the burnt offering [victim].

²⁰ And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the cereal offering on the altar; and he shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

¹¹ And God did unusual and extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹² So that handkerchiefs or towels or aprons which had touched his skin were carried away and put upon the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³ Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists (men who adjure evil spirits) also undertook to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I solemnly implore and charge you by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches!

¹⁴ Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this.

¹⁵ But [one] evil spirit retorted, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ^[a]about, but who are you?

¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped upon them, mastering ^[b]two of them, and was so violent against them that they dashed out of that house [in fear], stripped naked and wounded.

¹⁷ This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and alarm and terror fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled and magnified.

¹⁸ Many also of those who were now believers came making ^[c]full confession and thoroughly exposing their [former deceptive and evil] practices.

¹⁹ And many of those who had practiced curious, magical arts collected their books and [throwing them, ^[d]book after book, on the pile] burned them in the sight of everybody. When they counted the value of them, they found it amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver (^[e]about $9,300).

²⁰ Thus the Word of the Lord [concerning the ^[f]attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] grew and spread and intensified, prevailing mightily.