Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Foolishness of Idolatry

⁹ Those who fashion an idol are all futile, and their treasured things are of no benefit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be ^(A)put to shame. ¹⁰ Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to ^(B)no benefit? ¹¹ Behold, all his companions will be ^(C)put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them be put to shame together.

¹² The ^(D)craftsman of iron shapes a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, ^[a]fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and ^[b]his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. ^13 (E)The craftsman of wood extends a measuring line; he outlines it with a marker. He works it with carving knives and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of ^(F)mankind, so that it may sit in a ^(G)house. ¹⁴ He will cut cedars for himself, and he takes a holm-oak or another oak and lets it grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel tree, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵ Then it becomes something for a person to burn, so he takes one of them and gets warm; he also makes a fire and bakes bread. He also ^(H)makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image and ^(I)bows down before it. ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat, he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷ Yet the rest of it he ^(J)makes into a god, his carved image. He bows down before it and worships; he also ^(K)prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

¹³ For ^(A)when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He ^(B)swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “^(C)indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, ^(D)having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. ^16 (E)For people swear an oath by ^[a]one greater than themselves, and with them ^(F)an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute. ^17 [b]In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to ^(G)the heirs of the promise ^[c](H)the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, ^[d]confirmed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things in which ^(I)it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to ^(J)the hope set before us. ^19 [e]This ^(K)hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which ^(L)enters ^[f]within the veil, ^20 (M)where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a ^(N)high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.