Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Put Not Your Trust in Princes

The Sabbatical Year

15 “At the end of ^(A)every seven years you shall grant a release. ² And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. ^3 (B)Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. ^4 (C)But there will be no poor among you; ^(D)for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— ^5 (E)if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. ⁶ For the Lord your God will bless you, ^(F)as he promised you, and ^(G)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and ^(H)you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

⁷ “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(I)you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, ⁸ but ^(J)you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. ⁹ Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your ^(K)eye look grudgingly^[a] on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he ^(L)cry to the Lord against you, and ^(M)you be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ You shall give to him freely, and ^(N)your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because ^(O)for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. ¹¹ For ^(P)there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ^(Q)‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

¹⁵ Therefore he is ^(A)the mediator of a new covenant, so that ^(B)those who are called may ^(C)receive the promised eternal inheritance, ^(D)since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.^{[a] 16} For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For ^(E)a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸ Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated ^(F)without blood. ¹⁹ For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took ^(G)the blood of calves and goats, ^(H)with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, ^(I)“This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” ²¹ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both ^(J)the tent and all the vessels used in worship. ²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and ^(K)without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

²³ Thus it was necessary for ^(L)the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into holy places ^(M)made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God ^(N)on our behalf.