Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
97 How I love your teachings!
I think about them all day long.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies
because they are mine forever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers
because I think about your rules.
100 I have more understanding than the elders
because I follow your orders.
101 I have avoided every evil way
so I could obey your word.
102 I haven’t stopped obeying your laws
because you yourself are my teacher.
103 Your promises are so sweet to me.
They are like honey to my mouth!
104 Your orders give me understanding.
So I hate lying ways.
Israel Confesses Sins
9 It was on the twenty-fourth day of that same month. The people of Israel gathered together. They did not eat. And they put on rough cloth and put dust on their heads. This was to show their sadness. 2 Those people whose ancestors were from Israel had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and their ancestors’ sins. 3 For a fourth of the day they stood where they were. And they read from the Book of the Teachings of the Lord their God. Then they spent another fourth of the day confessing their sins. And they worshiped the Lord their God. 4 These Levites were standing on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kanani. They called out to the Lord their God with loud voices. 5 And these Levites spoke: Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah. They said, “Stand up and praise the Lord your God. He lives forever and ever.”
The People’s Prayer
“Blessed be your wonderful name.
It is more wonderful than all blessing and praise.
6 You are the only Lord.
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens.
You made all the stars.
You made the earth and everything that is on it.
You made the seas and everything that is in them.
You give life to everything.
The heavenly army worships you.
7 “You are the Lord God.
You chose Abram.
You brought him out of Ur of the Babylonians.
You named him Abraham.
8 You found that he was faithful to you.
So you made an agreement with him.
You promised to give his descendants the land of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites,
Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites.
You have kept your promise.
You are fair.
9 “You saw our ancestors suffering in Egypt.
You heard them cry out at the Red Sea.
10 You did signs and miracles against the king of Egypt.
And you did them against all his officers and all the people of Egypt.
You knew how proud they were.
You made everyone know your name.
And it is still known today.
11 You divided the sea in front of our ancestors.
They walked through it on dry ground.
But you threw the people chasing them into the deep water.
They were like a stone being thrown into mighty waters.
12 You led our ancestors with a pillar of cloud in the daytime.
And you led them with a pillar of fire at night.
It lit the way
they were supposed to go.
13 You came down to Mount Sinai.
You talked to our ancestors from heaven.
You gave them fair rules and true teachings.
You gave them good orders and commands.
14 You told them about your holy Sabbath.
You gave commands, orders and teachings to them
through your servant Moses.
15 When they were hungry, you gave them bread from heaven.
When they were thirsty, you brought them water from the rock.
You told them to go into the land and take it over.
You had promised to give it to them.
Wives and Husbands
21 Be willing to obey each other. Do this because you respect Christ.
22 Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord. 23 The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. The church is Christ’s body—Christ is the Savior of the body. 24 The church is under the authority of Christ. So it is the same with you wives. You should be under the authority of your husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ died for the church 26 to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. 27 Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. 28 And husbands should love their wives in the same way. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. 29 No person ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church, 30 because we are parts of his body. 31 The Scripture says, “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.”[a] 32 That secret truth is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband.
Children and Parents
6 Children, obey your parents the way the Lord wants. This is the right thing to do. 2 The command says, “Honor your father and mother.”[b] This is the first command that has a promise with it. 3 The promise is: “Then everything will be well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”[c]
4 Fathers, do not make your children angry, but raise them with the training and teaching of the Lord.
Slaves and Masters
5 Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect. And do that with a heart that is true, just as you obey Christ. 6 You must do more than obey your masters to please them only while they are watching you. You must obey them as you are obeying Christ. With all your heart you must do what God wants. 7 Do your work, and be happy to do it. Work as if you were serving the Lord, not as if you were serving only men. 8 Remember that the Lord will give a reward to everyone, slave or free, for doing good.
9 Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Do not say things to scare them. You know that the One who is your Master and their Master is in heaven. And that Master treats everyone alike.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.