Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁹ All those who make idols amount to nothing, and the images in which they take such pride profit no one. Their witnesses are blind and ignorant, and therefore they become objects of scorn. ¹⁰ Who would waste his time in fashioning a god or casting an image that will serve no purpose? ¹¹ All who believe in their power will be put to shame, as will the craftsmen who fashioned them. Let them all assemble and approach me with terror and with shame.

¹² The blacksmith fashions an ax over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm. Then he becomes hungry and his strength fails, and he becomes exhausted because he has not consumed any water.

¹³ The woodworker measures with a line and marks out an outline with a stylus. He shapes it with a plane and marks it with a compass. Then he carves it into the shape of a man, comely in appearance and dignity, to be placed in a shrine.

¹⁴ He also cuts down cedars or chooses a cypress or an oak that he has allowed to grow strong among the other trees of the forest, and a pine tree that he had planted and the rain has nourished. ¹⁵ When such trees are suitable to burn, he can use some of them to keep warm or to bake bread, but with others he fashions a god and worships it, shaping it into an idol and bowing down before it.

¹⁶ Half of the trees he uses to burn in the fire to roast meat which he eats and is satisfied, while at the same time he warms himself and says, “Ah, how warm I am from the heat of the fire.” ¹⁷ With the remainder he fashions a god, an idol before which he bows down and offers worship. He prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

¹³ Cling Tightly to Hope.^[a] When God made his promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.” ¹⁵ And so, after waiting patiently, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶ Human beings swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath given as confirmation puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Likewise, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of his promise the unalterable nature of his purpose, he confirmed it by an oath.

¹⁸ Therefore, by these two unchangeable acts in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge in his protection have been strongly encouraged to grasp firmly the hope that has been held out to us. ¹⁹ We have this hope as the anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the sanctuary behind the veil,^{[b] 20} where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.