Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

^97 [a]I truly love your law.
    It is my meditation throughout the day.
^98 [b]Your precept has given me greater wisdom than my enemies,
    for it is mine forever.
⁹⁹ I am wiser than all my teachers
    because I meditate on your commands.
¹⁰⁰ I have greater insight than the elders,^[c]
    because I keep your commandments.
¹⁰¹ I point my feet away from evil paths
    so that I might observe your word.
¹⁰² I refuse to ignore your judgments,
    for it is you yourself who have taught me.
¹⁰³ Your words are sweet to my palate,
    even sweeter to my tongue than honey.^[d]
104 Through your commandments I achieve wisdom;
    therefore, I hate every way that is false.

¹⁶ “However, they and our ancestors acted with arrogance;
    they stubbornly refused to obey your commandments.
¹⁷ They refused to obey you
    and no longer recalled the miracles
    you had wrought among them.
In their obstinacy they became stiff-necked
    and came to a decision
    to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But because you are a forgiving God,
    gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and rich in mercy,
    you did not forsake them.
¹⁸ “Even when they had cast for themselves
    a calf out of molten metal
and proclaimed: ‘Here is your God
who brought you up from Egypt,’
and were guilty of gross blasphemies,
¹⁹ you in your great compassion
    did not abandon them in the wilderness.
The pillar of cloud never failed
    to lead them on their journey by night,
nor did the pillar of fire fail by night
    to light the way ahead of them
    by which they were to go.
²⁰ “You bestowed your good spirit on them
    to give them understanding.
Your manna you did not withhold from their mouths,
    and you gave them water in their thirst.
²¹ For forty years you sustained them;
    they lacked nothing in the wilderness.
Their clothes did not become worn,
    and their feet did not become swollen.
²² “You gave them kingdoms and peoples,
    allotting to them even the most remote frontiers.
They took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon
    and the land of King Og of Bashan.
²³ You made their children as numerous
    as the stars of the heavens,
and you brought them into the land
    which you had commanded their fathers to enter and possess.
²⁴ “The sons entered and took possession of the land,
and you subdued the Canaanite inhabitants
    and delivered them into your power,
their kings as well as the peoples of the land,
    to deal with them as they pleased.
²⁵ They captured fortified towns and fertile land;
    they took possession of houses
    filled with all kinds of good things,
cisterns already dug, vineyards,
    olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.
They ate and had their fill, grew fat,
    and found delight in your great goodness.
²⁶ “Nevertheless they grew disobedient,
    rebelled against you,
    and cast your law behind their backs.
They also killed your prophets
    who bore witness against them
to bring them back to you,
    while they committed great blasphemies.
²⁷ Therefore, you delivered them
    into the power of their enemies
    who caused them to suffer greatly.
But when they would cry out to you
    in the midst of their oppression,
from heaven you heard them,
    and in your great compassion
you would send them saviors
    to deliver them from the clutches
    of their oppressors.
²⁸ “However, after some respite,
    they would resume their evil deeds,
and so the Lord abandoned them to their enemies
    who then became their rulers.
When once again they appealed to you,
    you heard them from heaven,
and because of your compassion
    you rescued them on many occasions.
²⁹ You solemnly warned them
    in order to bring them back to your law.
However, they became arrogant
    and refused to obey your commandments,
and they sinned against your ordinances
    whose observance would bring life
    to those who keep them.
Rather they stubbornly turned aside,
    and in their obstinacy they refused to obey.
³⁰ “You were patient with them for many years
    and warned them by your spirit
    through the prophets.
However, when they continued to refuse to listen,
    you put them at the mercy
    of the people of other lands.
³¹ Yet even so, because of your great compassion,
    you did not completely destroy them,
nor did you forsake them,
    for you are a gracious and merciful God.