Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But You, Yahweh my Lord,
deal kindly with me because of Your name;(A)
deliver me because of the goodness of Your faithful love.(B)
22 For I am afflicted and needy;(C)
my heart is wounded within me.(D)
23 I fade away like a lengthening shadow;(E)
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting,
and my body is emaciated.[a](F)
25 I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;[b]
when they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.(G)
26 Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to Your faithful love(H)
27 so they may know that this is Your hand
and that You, Lord, have done it.(I)
28 Though they curse, You will bless.
When they rise up, they will be put to shame,
but Your servant will rejoice.(J)
29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace;
they will wear their shame like a cloak.(K)
30 I will fervently thank the Lord with my mouth;
I will praise Him in the presence of many.(L)
31 For He stands at the right hand of the needy
to save him from those who would condemn him.(M)
Israel’s Rebellion
20 In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, some of Israel’s elders came to consult the Lord,(A) and they sat down in front of me. 2 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 3 “Son of man, speak with the elders of Israel and tell them: This is what the Lord God says: Are you coming to consult Me? As I live, I will not be consulted by you.”(B) This is the declaration of the Lord God.
4 “Will you pass judgment against them, will you pass judgment, son of man? Explain the detestable practices of their fathers to them.(C) 5 Say to them: This is what the Lord God says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath[a](D) to the descendants of Jacob’s house and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I swore to them, saying: I am Yahweh your God.(E) 6 On that day I swore[b] to them that I would bring them out(F) of the land of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey,(G) the most beautiful of all lands.(H) 7 I also said to them: Each of you must throw away the detestable things that are before your eyes and not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt.(I) I am Yahweh your God.(J)
8 “But they rebelled against Me and were unwilling to listen to Me. None of them threw away the detestable things that were before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I considered pouring out My wrath on them,(K) exhausting My anger against them within the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted because of My name,(L) so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations they were living among, in whose sight I had made Myself known to Israel by bringing them out of Egypt.
10 “So I brought them out of the land of Egypt and led them into the wilderness.(M) 11 Then I gave them My statutes and explained My ordinances to them—the person who does them will live by them.(N) 12 I also gave them My Sabbaths to serve as a sign between Me and them,(O) so they will know that I am Yahweh who sets them apart as holy.
13 “But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness.(P) They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—the person who does them will live by them.(Q) They also completely profaned My Sabbaths.(R) So I considered pouring out My wrath on them in the wilderness to put an end to them.(S) 14 But I acted because of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 15 However, I swore[c] to them(T) in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land I had given them—the most beautiful of all lands, flowing with milk and honey— 16 because they rejected My ordinances, profaned My Sabbaths, and did not follow My statutes. For their hearts went after their idols.(U) 17 But I spared them from destruction and did not bring them to an end in the wilderness.(V)
Warning against Unbelief
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
and saw My works 10 for 40 years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known My ways.”
11 So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.”(A)[a]
12 Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.(B) 14 For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality[b] that we had at the start.(C) 15 As it is said:
16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?(E) 17 And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?(F) 18 And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
The Promised Rest
4 Therefore, while the promise to enter His rest remains, let us fear that none of you should miss it.[d] 2 For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith[e](G) 3 (for we who have believed enter the rest), in keeping with what[f] He has said:
And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world, 4 for somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way:
5 Again, in that passage He says, They will never enter My rest.[i] 6 Since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience,(J) 7 again, He specifies a certain day—today—speaking through David after such a long time, as previously stated:
8 For if Joshua(L) had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.(M) 11 Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
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