Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Teth

^2 (A)“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(B)in transgressing his covenant, ³ and has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or ^(C)the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(D)which I have forbidden, ⁴ and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall enquire ^(E)diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you ^(F)shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. ^6 (G)On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. ^7 (H)The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So ^(I)you shall purge^[a] the evil^[b] from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to ^(J)the place that the Lord your God will choose. ^9 (K)And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^(L)they shall declare to you the decision. ¹⁰ Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. ¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. ¹² The man who ^(M)acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^(N)who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^(O)you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ And all the people ^(P)shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Submission to the Authorities

13 Let every person ^(A)be subject to the governing authorities. For ^(B)there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you ^(C)will receive his approval, ⁴ for ^(D)he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, ^(E)an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also ^(F)for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ^7 (G)Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed.