Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly

² Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: ^(A)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— ^3 (B)the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴ Yet ^(C)the Lord has not given you a heart to ^[a]perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. ^5 (D)And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. ^(E)Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. ^6 (F)You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ And when you came to this place, ^(G)Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. ⁸ We took their land and ^(H)gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹ Therefore ^(I)keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may ^(J)prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰ “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from ^(K)the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— ¹² that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and ^(L)into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, ¹³ that He may ^(M)establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, ^(N)just as He has spoken to you, and ^(O)just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ “I make this covenant and this oath, ^(P)not with you alone, ¹⁵ but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, ^(Q)as well as with him who is not here with us today ¹⁶ (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, ¹⁷ and you saw their ^[b]abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); ¹⁸ so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, ^(R)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, ^(S)and that there may not be among you a root bearing ^(T)bitterness or wormwood; ¹⁹ and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I ^[c]follow the ^(U)dictates of my heart’—^(V)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

^20 (W)“The Lord would not spare him; for then ^(X)the anger of the Lord and ^(Y)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord ^(Z)would blot out his name from under heaven.

Christ Brings Division^(A)

^34 (B)“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to ^(C)‘set^[a] a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; ³⁶ and ^(D)‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ ^37 (E)He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ^38 (F)And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. ^39 (G)He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

A Cup of Cold Water^(H)

^40 (I)“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. ^41 (J)He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ^42 (K)And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”