Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Joy Comes with the Morning

A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of ^(A)the temple.

Laws for Cleansing Lepers

14 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. ^(A)He shall be brought to the priest, ³ and the priest shall go ^(B)out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, ⁴ the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live^[a] clean birds and ^(C)cedarwood and ^(D)scarlet yarn and ^(E)hyssop. ⁵ And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh^[b] water. ⁶ He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. ⁷ And he shall ^(F)sprinkle it ^(G)seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall ^(H)let the living bird go ^(I)into the open field. ⁸ And he who is to be cleansed ^(J)shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but ^(K)live outside his tent seven days. ⁹ And ^(L)on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he ^(M)shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁰ “And on the eighth day he ^(N)shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a ^(O)grain offering of three tenths of an ephah^[c] of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log^[d] 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 entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹² And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and ^(P)offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and ^(Q)wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ¹³ And he shall kill the lamb ^(R)in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For ^(S)the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; ^(T)it is most holy. ¹⁴ The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it ^(U)on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. ¹⁵ Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand ¹⁶ and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. ¹⁷ And some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. ¹⁸ And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. ^(V)Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. ¹⁹ The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. ²⁰ And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the ^(W)grain offering on the altar. ^(X)Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ And ^(A)God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12 (B)so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and ^(C)the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish ^(D)exorcists ^(E)undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ^(F)“I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, ^(G)“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all^[a] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and ^(H)the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, ^(I)confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord ^(J)continued to increase and prevail mightily.