Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But You, O God my Lord,
work on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow in the evening;
I am tossed as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting,
and my body is thin with no fat.
25 I am a reproach to my accusers;
when they look upon me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to Your mercy,
27 that they may know that this is by Your hand,
that You, O Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but You will bless;
when they arise, let them be ashamed,
but let Your servant rejoice.
29 Let my adversaries be clothed with shame,
and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace like a cloak.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
indeed, I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For He stands at the right hand of the poor,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
18 But I said to their children in the wilderness: Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them. 20 And hallow My Sabbaths. And they shall be a sign between Me and you that you may know that I am the Lord your God.
21 Yet the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes, nor did they keep My judgments to do them, which if a man does them, he shall live. They polluted My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. 22 Nevertheless I withdrew My hand and acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them out. 23 I lifted up My hand to them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, 24 because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. 25 Therefore I gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments by which they could not live. 26 And I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all who opened the womb, that I might make them desolate in order that they might know that I am the Lord.
27 Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. 28 When I had brought them into the land for which I lifted up My hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill and all the leafy trees, and there they offered their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their sweet savor and there poured out their drink offerings. 29 Then I said to them: What is the high place to which you go? And the name is called Bamah to this day.
30 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Will you pollute yourselves after the manner of your fathers and commit harlotry after their abominations? 31 When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.
32 That which comes into your mind shall not come about when you say, “We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.”
The Message to Philadelphia
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
“He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens, says these things: 8 I know your works. Look! I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Listen! I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Listen! I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept My word of patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon the entire world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 “Look, I am coming quickly. Hold firmly what you have, so that no one may take your crown. 12 He who overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.