Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Israel’s Rebelliousness and the Lord’s Help.
106 [a]Praise [b]the Lord!
Oh (A)give thanks to the Lord, for He (B)is good;
For (C)His mercy is everlasting.
2 Who can speak of the (D)mighty deeds of the Lord,
Or can proclaim all His praise?
3 How blessed are those who maintain [c]justice,
[d]Who (E)practice righteousness at all times!
13 They quickly (A)forgot His works;
They (B)did not wait for His plan,
14 But (C)became lustfully greedy in the wilderness,
And (D)put God to the test in the desert.
15 So He (E)gave them their request,
But (F)sent a [a]wasting disease among them.
16 When they became (G)envious of Moses in the camp,
And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,
17 The (H)earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
And engulfed the [b]company of Abiram.
18 And a (I)fire blazed up in their [c]company;
The flame consumed the wicked.
19 They (J)made a calf in Horeb,
And worshiped a cast metal image.
20 So they (K)exchanged their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They (L)forgot God their Savior,
Who had done (M)great things in Egypt,
22 [d](N)Wonders in the land of Ham,
And awesome things by the [e]Red Sea.
23 Therefore (O)He said that He would destroy them,
If (P)Moses, His chosen one, had not stood in the gap before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.
21 “(A)Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 For (B)I am going to die in this land; I am not crossing the Jordan, but you are going to cross, and you will take possession of this (C)good land. 23 So be careful [a]yourselves, (D)that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and (E)make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. 24 For the Lord your God is a (F)consuming fire, a (G)jealous God.
25 “When you father children and have [b]grandchildren, and you grow old in the land, and you (H)act corruptly, and (I)make [c]an idol in the form of anything, and (J)do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I (K)call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will (L)certainly perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not [d]live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 The Lord will (M)scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. 28 (N)There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, (O)wood and stone, (P)which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell anything. 29 (Q)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him (R)with all your heart and all your soul. 30 When you (S)are in distress and all these things happen to you, (T)in the latter days (U)you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a (V)compassionate God; (W)He will not abandon you nor (X)destroy you, nor (Y)forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
32 “Indeed, (Z)ask now about the earlier days that were [e]before your time, since the (AA)day that God created [f]mankind on the earth, and inquire (AB)from one end of the heavens to the other. (AC)Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 (AD)Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34 (AE)Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation (AF)by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, (AG)by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, [g]just as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord, He is God; (AH)there is no other besides Him. 36 (AI)Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice (AJ)to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 (AK)Because He loved your fathers, He chose [h]their descendants after them. And He [i](AL)personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and (AM)to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that (AN)the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 (AO)So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am [j]giving you today, so that (AP)it may go well for you and for your children after you, and (AQ)that you may [k]live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your (A)tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘(B)Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘(C)The one who speaks evil of father or mother, is [a]certainly to be put to death’; 11 but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is (D)Corban (that is, [b]given to God),’ 12 you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thereby invalidating the word of God by your (E)tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
The Heart of Man
14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person[c].”
17 And when He later entered a house, away from the crowd, (F)His disciples asked Him about the parable. 18 And He *said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and [d]is eliminated?” (Thereby He declared (G)all foods (H)clean.) 20 And He was saying, “(I)That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person. 21 For from within, out of the [e]hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, 22 deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, [f](J)envy, slander, [g]pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”
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