Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or your manservant or your maidservant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the stranger or sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

¹⁵ And [earnestly] remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe and take heed to the Sabbath day.

Psalm 81

To the Chief Musician; set to Philistine lute, or [possibly] a particular Gittite tune. [A Psalm] of Asaph.

¹ Sing aloud to God our Strength! Shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

² Raise a song, sound the timbrel, the sweet lyre with the harp.

³ Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴ For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵ This He ordained in Joseph [the ^[a]savior] for a testimony when He went out over the land of Egypt. The speech of One Whom I knew not did I hear [saying],

⁶ I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.

⁷ You called in distress and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!^(A)

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you—O Israel, if you would listen to Me!

⁹ There shall no strange god be among you, neither shall you worship any alien god.

¹⁰ I am the Lord your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

⁵ For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves [merely] as your servants (slaves) for Jesus’ sake.

⁶ For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).^(A)

⁷ However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.

⁸ We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair;

⁹ We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;

¹⁰ Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the [^[a]resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies.

¹¹ For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [^[b]resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.

¹² Thus death is actively at work in us, but [it is in order that ^[c]our] life [may be actively at work] in you.

²³ One Sabbath He was going along beside the fields of standing grain, and as they made their way, His disciples began to ^[a]pick off the grains.^(A)

²⁴ And the Pharisees said to Him, Look! Why are they doing what is not permitted or lawful on the Sabbath?

²⁵ And He said to them, Have you never [even] read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were accompanying him?—

²⁶ How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was the high priest, and ate the sacred loaves set forth [before God], which it is not permitted or lawful for any but the priests to eat, and [how he] also gave [them] to those who were with him?^(B)

²⁷ And Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made on account and for the sake of man, not man for the Sabbath;^(C)

²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

3 Again Jesus went into a synagogue, and a man was there who had one withered hand [^[b]as the result of accident or disease].

² And [the Pharisees] kept watching Jesus [closely] to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might get a charge to bring against Him [^[c]formally].

³ And He said to the man who had the withered hand, Get up [and stand here] in the midst.

⁴ And He said to them, Is it lawful and right on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to take it? But they kept silence.

⁵ And He glanced around at them with vexation and anger, grieved at the hardening of their hearts, and said to the man, Hold out your hand. He held it out, and his hand was [completely] restored.

⁶ Then the Pharisees went out and immediately held a consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might [devise some means to] put Him to death.