Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 43

A Plea for Vindication

Refrain

An Oracle From the Lord:
Improper Sacrifices Insult God

⁶ A son honors his father. A servant honors his master. If I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is the reverence owed to me? This is what the Lord of Armies says to you. The priests are the ones who despise my name.

You say, “How have we despised your name?”

⁷ You despise my name by bringing defiled food to my altar.

But you say, “How have we defiled you?”

You defile me when you say, “The Lord’s table deserves no respect.” ⁸ When you bring a blind animal as a sacrifice, isn’t that evil? When you bring something lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Try bringing that to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he receive you with favor? This is what the Lord of Armies says.

Interjection by Israel

⁹ Now ask for God’s favor so that he may be gracious to us.

An Oracle From the Lord:
Improper Sacrifices Insult God

With offerings like this from your hand, will he receive you with favor? This is what the Lord of Armies says. ¹⁰ I wish there was someone among you who would shut the temple doors so you would not keep lighting useless fires on my altar! I find nothing pleasing about you, says the Lord of Armies. I am not pleased with an offering from your hand.

¹¹ Yes, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, my name will be great among the nations! In every place incense and a pure offering will be presented to my name, because my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of Armies.

¹² But you are profaning my name when you say, “The Lord’s table is polluted, and we despise the things offered on it, the food that is on it.” ¹³ You also say, “What drudgery!” and you snort at it with contempt, says the Lord of Armies. You bring something torn,^[a] something lame, something sick, and present it as an offering. Should I be pleased with something like that from your hand? says the Lord.

¹⁴ Cursed is the cheater who vows to offer a male animal from his flock, but then he sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord instead. Indeed, I am a great king, says the Lord of Armies, and my name will be feared among the nations.

A Warning to the Priests From the Lord

2 Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

² If you do not listen, if you do not set your heart on giving glory to my name, says the Lord of Armies, then I will send the curse^[b] against you. I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already cursed your offerings because you are not putting your heart into it. ³ Yes, I will rebuke your offspring.^[c] I will smear animal bowels and their contents on your faces, the bowels produced by your festivals, and you will be hauled off with them.^[d]

⁴ You will know that I sent you this commandment, so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of Armies. ⁵ My covenant with him was life and peace, which I gave to him. It was a covenant of reverence,^[e] and he revered me. He respected my name. ⁶ The true law was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He turned many away from guilt. ⁷ The lips of a priest should be guardians of knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth because he is a messenger of the Lord of Armies.

⁸ But you priests have turned from the way. You have made many people stumble in regard to the law.^[f] You have ruined the covenant with Levi, says the Lord of Armies. ⁹ So I have made you despised and humiliated in the view of all the people, because you are not keeping my ways but are showing favoritism in carrying out the law.

Woes and Warnings

¹³ “But woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven right in front of people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor do you permit those who are trying to enter to do so.^{[a] 15} Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel the sea and the land to make one convert, and then when he is converted, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

¹⁶ “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ ¹⁷ You blind fools! After all, which is greater: the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ ¹⁹ You blind men! After all, which is greater: the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ Also, whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it. ²² And whoever swears by heaven, swears by God’s throne and by him who sits on it.

²³ “Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give ten percent of your mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. You should have done these things and not failed to do the other things. ²⁴ Blind guides, you strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

²⁵ “Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of a cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and dish so that the outside may become clean too.

²⁷ “Woe to you, experts in the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of uncleanness. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.