Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Tet: It Is Good to Be Afflicted
65 You have done good for your servant, O Lord,
according to your words.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
for I believe in your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I strayed,
but now I keep your saying.
68 You are good, and you do good.
Teach me your statutes.
69 The arrogant have smeared me with lies.
I guard your precepts with all my heart.
70 Their calloused hearts[a] feel nothing,
but I delight in your law.
71 It was good for me that I was afflicted,
so that I might learn your statutes.
72 Better for me is the law from your mouth
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
2 If there is found among you (within the gates of one of your cities that the Lord your God is giving you) a man or a woman who is doing something that is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God by transgressing his covenant, 3 or a man or a woman who is going and serving other gods and bowing down to them or to the sun or to the moon or to any of the army of the heavens, something that I have not commanded, 4 and you are told about it and you listen and investigate diligently, and it is established that the charge is true and that this abomination has been committed in Israel, 5 then you are to bring that man or that woman who has committed this evil out to your city gate, and you are to stone that person to death, whether man or woman.
6 A person is to be put to death on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses. No one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses are to be the first ones raised against him when putting him to death, and after that the hands of all the other people. In that way you are to purge the evil from among you.
8 If a case is too difficult for you to make a decision, whether it involves a homicide, a lawsuit, or an assault, or any matters of controversy within the gates of your cities, then proceed by going up to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 Go to the priests, who are from the tribe of Levi, and to the presiding judge at that time and lay out the case. They will declare the verdict to you. 10 Then you are to act according to the verdict that they will declare to you from the place that the Lord will choose, and you are to be careful to carry out everything that they instruct you to do.
11 Act according to the instructions they give you and according to the judgment that they speak to you. Do not turn to the right or to the left from the word that they declare to you.
12 Any man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest, who presides and serves the Lord your God there, or by not listening to the judge, that man is condemned to die. In that way you will purge the evil from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear and fear and not act presumptuously anymore.
Governments Are Established by God
13 Everyone must submit to the governing authorities. For no authority exists except by God, and the authorities that do exist have been established by God. 2 Therefore the one who rebels against the authority is opposing God’s institution, and those who oppose will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to evil. Would you like to have no fear of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will receive praise from him, 4 because he is God’s servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because he does not carry the sword without reason. He is God’s servant, a punisher to bring wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore it is necessary to submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience.
6 For this reason you also pay taxes, because the authorities are God’s ministers, who are employed to do this very thing. 7 Pay what you owe to all of them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.