Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God, the Judge of the Righteous and the Wicked.
A Psalm of [a]Asaph.
50 (A)The Mighty One, God, the Lord, has spoken
And summoned the earth, (B)from [b]the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, (C)the perfection of beauty,
God (D)has shone.
3 May our God (E)come and not keep silent;
(F)Fire devours before Him,
And a storm is violently (G)raging around Him.
4 He (H)summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:
5 “Gather My (I)godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a (J)covenant with Me by (K)sacrifice.”
6 And the (L)heavens declare His righteousness,
For (M)God Himself is judge. Selah
7 “(N)Hear, My people, and I will speak;
Israel, I will testify [c]against you;
I am God, (O)your God.
8 I do (P)not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 I will not take a (Q)bull from your house,
Nor male goats from your folds.
10 For (R)every animal of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every (S)bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is [d]Mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the (T)world is Mine, and [e]everything it contains.
13 Shall I eat the flesh of [f](U)bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?
14 Offer God (V)a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And (W)pay your vows to the Most High;
15 (X)Call upon Me on the day of trouble;
I will (Y)rescue you, and you will (Z)honor Me.”
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right do you have to tell of My statutes
And to take (AA)My covenant in your mouth?
17 For you yourself (AB)hate discipline,
And you (AC)throw My words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you (AD)become friends with him,
And [g]you (AE)associate with adulterers.
19 You [h](AF)let your mouth loose in evil,
And your (AG)tongue harnesses deceit.
20 You sit and (AH)speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things you have done and (AI)I kept silent;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will (AJ)rebuke you and present the case before your eyes.
Foreigners Excluded
13 On that day the Book of Moses was (A)read aloud [a]as the people listened; and there was found written in it that (B)no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to enter the assembly of God, 2 because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but (C)hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, (D)our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 So when they heard the Law, (E)they excluded (F)all foreigners from Israel.
Mixed Marriages Forbidden
23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had [a](A)married women from (B)Ashdod, (C)Ammon, and Moab. 24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them knew how to speak the language of Judah, but [b]only the language of his own people. 25 So (D)I quarreled with them and cursed them, and (E)struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and (F)made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take any of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 (G)Did Solomon the king of Israel not sin regarding these things? (H)Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and (I)he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; yet the foreign women caused even him to sin. 27 Has it not then been reported about you that you have committed all this great evil (J)by acting unfaithfully against our God, by [c]marrying foreign women?” 28 Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, became a son-in-law of (K)Sanballat the Horonite, so I chased him away from me. 29 (L)Remember them, my God, [d]because they have defiled the priesthood and the (M)covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
30 (N)So I purified them from everything foreign, and assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each in his work, 31 and I arranged (O)for the delivery of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. (P)Remember me, my God, for good.
9 I wrote to you in my letter (A)not to associate with sexually immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with (B)idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world. 11 But [a]actually, I [b]wrote to you not to associate [c]with any so-called (C)brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or (D)an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what business of mine is it to judge (E)outsiders? (F)Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God [d]judges. (G)Remove the evil person from among yourselves.
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