Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²⁷ Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: I revealed myself to your ancestors when they were under Pharaoh’s control in Egypt. ²⁸ I chose ⌞one of your ancestors⌟ out of all the tribes of Israel to serve as my priest, to sacrifice burnt offerings on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod in my presence. And I gave your ancestors the right to keep portions of the sacrifices that the people of Israel burned on the altar. ²⁹ Why do you show no respect for my sacrifices and grain offerings that I have commanded people to make in my dwelling place? Why do you honor your sons more than me by making yourselves fat on the best of all the sacrifices offered by my people Israel?

³⁰ “Therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares: I certainly thought that your family and your father’s family would always live in my presence.

“But now the Lord declares: I promise that I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be considered insignificant. ³¹ The time is coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that no one will grow old in your family. ³² You will see distress in my dwelling place. In spite of the good that I do for Israel, no one in your family will live to an old age. ³³ Any man in your family whom I do not remove from my altar will have his eyes fail, and he ^[a] will be heartbroken. And all your descendants will die in the prime of life. ³⁴ What is going to happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you: Both of them will die on the same day. ³⁵ Then I will appoint a faithful priest to serve me. He will do everything I want him to do. I will give him faithful descendants, and he will always live as my anointed one. ³⁶ Then anyone who is left from your household will bow down in front of him to get a coin or a loaf of bread and say, ‘Please appoint me to one of the priestly classes so that I may eat a piece of bread.’ ”

God Will Judge Jewish People

¹⁷ You call yourself a Jew, rely on the laws in Moses’ Teachings, brag about your God, ¹⁸ know what he wants, and distinguish right from wrong because you have been taught Moses’ Teachings. ¹⁹ You are confident that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in the dark, ²⁰ an instructor of ignorant people, and a teacher of children because you have the full content of knowledge and truth in Moses’ Teachings. ²¹ As you teach others, are you failing to teach yourself? As you preach against stealing, are you stealing? ²² As you tell others not to commit adultery, are you committing adultery? As you treat idols with disgust, are you robbing temples? ²³ As you brag about the laws in Moses’ Teachings, are you dishonoring God by ignoring those laws? ²⁴ As Scripture says, “God’s name is cursed among the nations because of you.”

²⁵ For example, circumcision is valuable if you follow the laws in Moses’ Teachings. If you don’t follow those laws, your circumcision amounts to uncircumcision. ²⁶ So if a man does what those laws demand, won’t he be considered circumcised even if he is uncircumcised? ²⁷ The uncircumcised man who carries out what those laws say will condemn you for not following them. He will condemn you in spite of the fact that you are circumcised and have those laws in writing. ²⁸ A person is not a Jew because of his appearance, nor is circumcision a matter of how the body looks. ²⁹ Rather, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is something that happens in a person’s heart. Circumcision is spiritual, not just a written rule. That person’s praise will come from God, not from people.