Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 144[a]
By David.
144 The Lord, my Protector,[b] deserves praise[c]—
the one who trains my hands for battle,[d]
and my fingers for war,
2 who loves me[e] and is my stronghold,
my refuge[f] and my deliverer,
my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,
who makes nations submit to me.[g]
3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race,[h] that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind,[i] that you should be concerned about them?[j]
4 People[k] are like a vapor,
their days like a shadow that disappears.[l]
5 O Lord, make the sky sink[m] and come down.[n]
Touch the mountains and make them smolder.[o]
6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter the enemy.
Shoot your arrows and rout them.[p]
7 Reach down[q] from above.
Grab me and rescue me from the surging water,[r]
from the power of foreigners,[s]
8 who speak lies,
and make false promises.[t]
9 O God, I will sing a new song to you.
Accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, I will sing praises to you,
10 the one who delivers[u] kings,
and rescued David his servant from a deadly[v] sword.
11 Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners,[w]
who speak lies,
and make false promises.[x]
12 Then[y] our sons will be like plants,
that quickly grow to full size.[z]
Our daughters will be like corner pillars,[aa]
carved like those in a palace.[ab]
13 Our storehouses[ac] will be full,
providing all kinds of food.[ad]
Our sheep will multiply by the thousands
and fill[ae] our pastures.[af]
14 Our cattle will be weighted down with produce.[ag]
No one will break through our walls,
no one will be taken captive,
and there will be no terrified cries in our city squares.[ah]
15 How blessed are the people who experience these things.[ai]
How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
The Awakening of Love
The Maidens about His Beloved:
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved?
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you;[a]
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.[b]
The Nature of True Love
The Beloved to Her Lover:
6 Set me like a cylinder seal[c] over your heart,[d]
like a signet[e] on your arm.[f]
For love is as strong as death,[g]
passion[h] is as unrelenting[i] as Sheol.
Its flames burst forth,[j]
it is a blazing flame.[k]
7 Surging waters cannot quench love;
floodwaters[l] cannot overflow it.
If someone were to offer all his possessions[m] to buy love,[n]
the offer[o] would be utterly despised.[p]
The Brother’s Plan and the Sister’s Reward
The Beloved’s Brothers:
8 We have a little sister,
and as yet she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?[q]
9 If she is a wall,[r]
we will build on her a battlement[s] of silver;
but if she is a door,
we will barricade[t] her with boards[u] of cedar.[v]
The Beloved:
Solomon’s Vineyard and the Beloved’s Vineyard
The Beloved to Her Lover:
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon;
he leased out[z] the vineyard to those who maintained it.
Each was to bring 1,000 shekels of silver for its fruit.
12 My vineyard,[aa] which belongs to me,[ab] is at my disposal alone.[ac]
The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon,
and 200 shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.
Epilogue: The Lover’s Request and His Beloved’s Invitation
The Lover to His Beloved:
13 O you who stay in the gardens,
my companions are listening attentively[ad] for your voice;
let me be the one to[ae] hear it![af]
The Beloved to Her Lover:
14 Make haste, my beloved!
Be like a gazelle or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.
The Response of the Jewish Leaders
45 Then many of the people,[a] who had come with Mary and had seen the things Jesus[b] did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees[c] and reported to them[d] what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees[e] called the council[f] together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to go on in this way,[g] everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary[h] and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said,[i] “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize[j] that it is more to your advantage to have one man[k] die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.”[l] 51 (Now he did not say this on his own,[m] but because he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation,[n] 52 and not for the Jewish nation[o] only,[p] but to gather together[q] into one the children of God who are scattered.)[r] 53 So from that day they planned together to kill him.
54 Thus Jesus no longer went[s] around publicly[t] among the Judeans,[u] but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim,[v] and stayed there with his disciples. 55 Now the Jewish Feast of Passover[w] was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually.[x] 56 Thus they were looking for Jesus,[y] and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts,[z] “What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?” 57 (Now the chief priests and the Pharisees[aa] had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus[ab] was should report it, so that they could arrest[ac] him.)[ad]
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