Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 119

¹ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God’s revealed will).

² Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.

³ Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.^(A)

⁴ You have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.

⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!

⁶ Then shall I not be put to shame [by failing to inherit Your promises] when I have respect to all Your commandments.

⁷ I will praise and give thanks to You with uprightness of heart when I learn [by sanctified experiences] Your righteous judgments [Your decisions against and punishments for particular lines of thought and conduct].

⁸ I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

22 If a man steals an ox or sheep and kills or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, or four sheep for a sheep.

² If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood shed for him.

³ But if the sun has risen [so he can be seen], blood must be shed for slaying him. The thief [if he lives] must make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

⁴ If the beast which he stole is found in his possession alive, whether it is ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double.

⁵ If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution of the best of his own field or his own vineyard.

⁶ If fire breaks out and catches so that the stacked grain or standing grain or the field be consumed, he who kindled the fire shall make full restitution.

⁷ If a man delivers to his neighbor money or goods to keep and it is stolen out of the neighbor’s house, then, if the thief is found, he shall pay double.

⁸ But if the thief is not found, the house owner shall appear before God [the judges as His agents] to find whether he stole his neighbor’s goods.

⁹ For every unlawful deed, whether it concerns ox, donkey, sheep, clothing, or any lost thing at all, which another identifies as his, the cause of both parties shall come before God [the judges]. Whomever [they] shall condemn shall pay his neighbor double.

¹⁰ If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep and it dies or is hurt or driven away, no man seeing it,

¹¹ Then an oath before the Lord shall be required between the two that the man has not taken his neighbor’s property; and the owner of it shall accept his word and not require him to make good the loss.

¹² But if it is stolen when in his care, he shall make restitution to its owner.

¹³ If it be torn in pieces [by some wild beast or by accident], let him bring [the mangled carcass] for witness; he shall not make good what was torn.

¹⁴ And if a man borrows anything of his neighbor and it gets hurt or dies without its owner being with it, the borrower shall make full restitution.

¹⁵ But if the owner is with it [when the damage is done], the borrower shall not make it good. If it is a hired thing, the damage is included in its hire.

9 Now even the first covenant had its own rules and regulations for divine worship, and it had a sanctuary [but one] of this world.^(A)

² For a tabernacle (tent) was erected, in the outer division or compartment of which were the lampstand and the table with [its loaves of] the showbread set forth. [This portion] is called the Holy Place.^(B)

³ But [inside] beyond the second curtain or veil, [there stood another] tabernacle [division] known as the Holy of Holies.^(C)

⁴ It had the golden ^[a]altar of incense and the ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold. This [ark] contained a golden jar which held the manna and the rod of Aaron that sprouted and the [two stone] slabs of the covenant [bearing the Ten Commandments].^(D)

⁵ Above [the ark] and overshadowing the mercy seat were the representations of the cherubim [winged creatures which were the symbols] of glory. We cannot now go into detail about these things.

⁶ These arrangements having thus been made, the priests enter [habitually] into the outer division of the tabernacle in performance of their ritual acts of worship.

⁷ But into the second [division of the tabernacle] none but the high priest goes, and he only once a year, and never without taking a sacrifice of blood with him, which he offers for himself and for the errors and sins of ignorance and thoughtlessness which the people have committed.^(E)

⁸ By this the Holy Spirit points out that the way into the [true Holy of] Holies is not yet thrown open as long as the former [the outer portion of the] tabernacle remains a recognized institution and is still standing,

⁹ Seeing that that first [outer portion of the] tabernacle was a parable (a visible symbol or type or picture of the present age). In it gifts and sacrifices are offered, and yet are incapable of perfecting the conscience or of cleansing and renewing the inner man of the worshiper.

¹⁰ For [the ceremonies] deal only with clean and unclean meats and drinks and different washings, [mere] external rules and regulations for the body imposed to tide the worshipers over until the time of setting things straight [of reformation, of the complete new order when Christ, the Messiah, shall establish the reality of what these things foreshadow—a better covenant].

¹¹ But [that appointed time came] when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come. [Then] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with [human] hands, that is, not a part of this material creation,

¹² He went once for all into the [Holy of] Holies [of heaven], not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves [by which to make reconciliation between God and man], but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us).