Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 111

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) I will praise and give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the council of the upright and in the congregation.

² The works of the Lord are great, sought out by all those who have delight in them.

³ His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever.

⁴ He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious, merciful, and full of loving compassion.

⁵ He has given food and provision to those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever and imprint it [on His mind].^(A)

⁶ He has declared and shown to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations [of Canaan].

⁷ The works of His hands are [absolute] truth and justice [faithful and right]; and all His decrees and precepts are sure (fixed, established, and trustworthy).

⁸ They stand fast and are established forever and ever and are done in [absolute] truth and uprightness.

⁹ He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant to be forever; holy is His name, inspiring awe, reverence, and godly fear.

¹⁰ The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of ^[a]Wisdom and skill [the preceding and the first essential, the prerequisite and the alphabet]; a good understanding, wisdom, and meaning have all those who do [the will of the Lord]. Their praise of Him endures forever.^(B)

³³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

³⁴ When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the disease of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession,

³⁵ Then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, It seems to me there is some sort of disease in my house.

³⁶ Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before [he] goes in to examine the disease, so that all that is in the house may not be declared unclean; afterward [he] shall go in to see the house.

³⁷ He shall examine the disease, and if it is in the walls of the house with depressed spots of dark green or dark red appearing beneath [the surface of] the wall,

³⁸ Then the priest shall go out of the door and shut up the house seven days.

³⁹ The priest shall come again on the seventh day and shall look; and if the disease has spread in the walls of the house,

⁴⁰ He shall command that they take out the diseased stones and cast them into an unclean place outside the city.

⁴¹ He shall cause the house to be scraped within round about and the plaster or mortar that is scraped off to be emptied out in an unclean place outside the city.

⁴² And they shall put other stones in the place of those stones, and he shall plaster the house with fresh mortar.

⁴³ If the disease returns, breaking out in the house after he has removed the stones and has scraped and plastered the house,

⁴⁴ Then the priest shall come and look, and if the disease is spreading in the house, it is a rotting or corroding leprosy in the house; it is unclean.

⁴⁵ He shall tear down the house—its stones and its timber and all the plaster or mortar of the house—and shall carry them forth out of the city to an unclean place.

⁴⁶ Moreover, he who enters the house during the whole time that it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening.

⁴⁷ And he who lies down or eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ But if the priest inspects it and the disease has not spread after the house was plastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the disease is healed.

⁴⁹ He shall take to cleanse the house two birds, cedar wood, scarlet [material], and hyssop;

⁵⁰ And he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water,

⁵¹ And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet [material], and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

⁵² And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, the running water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet [material].

⁵³ But he shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field; so he shall make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.

¹³ Hold fast and follow the pattern of wholesome and sound teaching which you have heard from me, in [all] the faith and love which are [for us] in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.

¹⁵ You already know that all who are in Asia turned away and forsook me, Phygelus and Hermogenes among them.

¹⁶ May the Lord grant [His] mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, for he often showed me kindness and ministered to my needs [comforting and reviving and bracing me like fresh air]! He was not ashamed of my chains and imprisonment [for Christ’s sake].

¹⁷ No, rather when he reached Rome, he searched diligently and eagerly for me and found me.

¹⁸ May the Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord on that [great] day! And you know how many things he did for me and what a help he was at Ephesus [you know better than I can tell you].