Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord’s Charges Against Them
7 Listen, my people, and let me speak, O Israel.
Then I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
Hypocritical Sacrifices Are Useless
8 It is not because of your sacrifices that I rebuke you
or because of your burnt offerings that are always in front of me.
9 I do not need to take a bull from your barn
or goats from your pens,
10 because every animal in the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand mountains.
11 I know every bird in the mountains,
and everything that moves in the field is with me.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
because the world is mine, and all that fills it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or do I drink the blood of goats?
Sincere Sacrifices Bring Blessing
14 Sacrifice a thank offering to God,
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of distress.
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
40 Let us explore and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
42 We were disobedient and rebelled, so you did not forgive.
43 You covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You killed and did not spare.
44 You covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer passes through.
45 You make us like scraps and garbage among the peoples.
46 All our enemies opened their mouth against us.
47 Panic and the pit were ours, devastation and destruction.
48 Streams of water run down from my eyes,
because of the breaking of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye pours without stopping. It will not cease,
50 until the Lord looks down so that he sees from heaven.
51 What I see makes my soul ache for all the daughters of my city.
52 For no reason, my enemies hunted me like a bird.
53 They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
54 Water flowed above my head, and I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on your name, Lord, from the deepest pit.
56 You heard my voice: “Do not hide your ear from my cry for relief!”
57 The day I called to you, you came near and said, “Do not fear.”
58 Lord, you pleaded my soul’s case. You redeemed my life.
Safe on Malta
28 Once we were safely on shore, we learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The natives showed us extraordinary kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all, because it had started to rain and was cold.
3 As Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the natives saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he escaped from the sea, Justice[a] has not allowed him to live.”
5 However, Paul shook the snake off into the fire and was not harmed. 6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited for a long time and saw nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
7 In the nearby vicinity was an estate that belonged to a man named Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us and entertained us hospitably as his guests for three days. 8 The father of Publius happened to be sick in bed, suffering from a fever and dysentery. Paul went to him, prayed, laid his hands on him, and healed him.
9 After that happened, others on the island who were sick also came and were healed. 10 They honored us in many ways, and when we were going to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.