Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
True Worship[a]
50 The Almighty God, the Lord, speaks;
he calls to the whole earth from east to west.
2 God shines from Zion,
the city perfect in its beauty.
3 Our God is coming, but not in silence;
a raging fire is in front of him,
a furious storm around him.
4 He calls heaven and earth as witnesses
to see him judge his people.
5 He says, “Gather my faithful people to me,
those who made a covenant with me by offering a sacrifice.”
6 The heavens proclaim that God is righteous,
that he himself is judge.
7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak;
I will testify against you, Israel.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not reprimand you because of your sacrifices
and the burnt offerings you always bring me.
9 And yet I do not need bulls from your farms
or goats from your flocks;
10 all the animals in the forest are mine
and the cattle on thousands of hills.
11 All the wild birds are mine
and all living things in the fields.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not ask you for food,
for the world and everything in it is mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Let the giving of thanks be your sacrifice to God,[b]
and give the Almighty all that you promised.
15 Call to me when trouble comes;
I will save you,
and you will praise me.”
16 But God says to the wicked,
“Why should you recite my commandments?
Why should you talk about my covenant?
17 You refuse to let me correct you;
you reject my commands.
18 You become the friend of every thief you see,
and you associate with adulterers.
19 “You are always ready to speak evil;
you never hesitate to tell lies.
20 You are ready to accuse your own relatives
and to find fault with them.
21 You have done all this, and I have said nothing,
so you thought that I am like you.
But now I reprimand you
and make the matter plain to you.
22 “Listen to this, you that ignore me,
or I will destroy you,
and there will be no one to save you.
23 Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me,
and I will surely save all who obey me.”
Separation from Foreigners
13 (A)When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God's people. 2 (B)This was because the people of Ammon and Moab did not give food and water to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Instead, they paid money to Balaam to curse Israel, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.
23 (A)At that time I also discovered that many of the Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some other language and didn't know how to speak our language. 25 I reprimanded the men, called down curses on them, beat them, and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath in God's name that never again would they or their children intermarry with foreigners. 26 (B)I told them, “It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. Here was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into this sin. 27 Are we then to follow your example and disobey our God by marrying foreign women?”
28 (C)Joiada was the son of Eliashib the High Priest, but one of Joiada's sons married the daughter of Sanballat, from the town of Beth Horon, so I made Joiada leave Jerusalem.
29 Remember, God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.
30 I purified the people from everything foreign; I prepared regulations for the priests and the Levites so that all of them would know their duties; 31 I arranged for the wood used for burning the offerings to be brought at the proper times, and for the people to bring their offerings of the first grain and the first fruits that ripened.
Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it.
9 In the letter that I wrote you I told you not to associate with immoral people. 10 Now I did not mean pagans who are immoral or greedy or are thieves, or who worship idols. To avoid them you would have to get out of the world completely. 11 What I meant was that you should not associate with a person who calls himself a believer but is immoral or greedy or worships idols or is a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief. Don't even sit down to eat with such a person.
12-13 (A)After all, it is none of my business to judge outsiders. God will judge them. But should you not judge the members of your own fellowship? As the scripture says, “Remove the evil person from your group.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.