Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

²¹ Furthermore, ^(A)the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land; ^(B)I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of ^(C)that good land. ^23 (D)Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and ^(E)make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(F)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(G)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, ^(H)if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(I)by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶ I ^(J)call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(K)will scatter you among the peoples, ^(L)and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(M)there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, ^(N)that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ^29 (O)But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you ^(P)in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is ^(Q)a merciful God. ^(R)He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

³² “For ^(S)ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ^33 (T)Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, ^(U)by signs, by wonders, and ^(V)by war, ^(W)by a mighty hand and ^(X)an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, ^(Y)that you might know that the Lord is God; ^(Z)there is no other besides him. ^36 (AA)Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and ^(AB)you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(AC)he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them^[a] and brought you out of Egypt ^(AD)with his own presence, by his great power, ^38 (AE)driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, ³⁹ know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that ^(AF)the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; ^(AG)there is no other. ^40 (AH)Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, ^(AI)that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of ^(A)rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ^(B)‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ^(C)‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)^[a]— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus ^(D)making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What Defiles a Person

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, ^(E)“Hear me, all of you, and understand: ^15 (F)There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”^{[b] 17} And when he had entered ^(G)the house and left the people, ^(H)his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then ^(I)are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart ^(J)but his stomach, and is expelled?”^[c] (^(K)Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, ^(L)“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, ^(M)murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, ^(N)sensuality, ^(O)envy, ^(P)slander, ^(Q)pride, ^(R)foolishness. ^23 (S)All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”