Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶⁵ [Teth.] Good Thou didst with Thy servant, O Jehovah, According to Thy word.

⁶⁶ The goodness of reason and knowledge teach me, For in Thy commands I have believed.

⁶⁷ Before I am afflicted, I -- I am erring, And now Thy saying I have kept.

⁶⁸ Good Thou [art], and doing good, Teach me Thy statutes.

⁶⁹ Forged against me falsehood have the proud, I with the whole heart keep Thy precepts.

⁷⁰ Insensate as fat hath been their heart, I -- in Thy law I have delighted.

⁷¹ Good for me that I have been afflicted, That I might learn Thy statutes.

⁷² Better to me [is] the law of Thy mouth Than thousands of gold and silver!

12 And it cometh to pass, at the establishing of the kingdom of Rehoboam, and at his strengthening himself, he hath forsaken the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him.

² And it cometh to pass, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, come up hath Shishak king of Egypt against Jerusalem -- because they trespassed against Jehovah --

³ with a thousand and two hundred chariots, and with sixty thousand horsemen, and there is no number to the people who have come with him out of Egypt -- Lubim, Sukkiim, and Cushim --

⁴ and he captureth the cities of the bulwarks that [are] to Judah, and cometh in unto Jerusalem.

⁵ And Shemaiah the prophet hath come in unto Rehoboam and the heads of Judah who have been gathered unto Jerusalem from the presence of Shishak, and saith to them, `Thus said Jehovah, Ye have forsaken Me, and also, I have left you in the hand of Shishak;'

⁶ and the heads of Israel are humbled, and the king, and they say, `Righteous [is] Jehovah.'

⁷ And when Jehovah seeth that they have been humbled, a word of Jehovah hath been unto Shemaiah, saying, `They have been humbled; I do not destroy them, and I have given to them as a little thing for an escape, and I pour not out My fury in Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak;

⁸ but they become servants to him, and they know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the lands.'

⁹ And Shishak king of Egypt cometh up against Jerusalem, and taketh the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the house of the king -- the whole he hath taken -- and he taketh the shields of gold that Solomon had made;

¹⁰ and king Rehoboam maketh in their stead shields of brass, and hath given [them] a charge on the hand of the heads of the runners who are keeping the opening of the house of the king;

¹¹ and it cometh to pass, from the time of the going in of the king to the house of Jehovah, the runners have come in and lifted them up, and brought them back unto the chamber of the runners.

¹² And in his being humbled, turned back from him hath the wrath of Jehovah, so as not to destroy to completion; and also, in Judah there have been good things.

⁷ Be mindful of those leading you, who did speak to you the word of God, whose faith -- considering the issue of the behaviour -- be imitating,

⁸ Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day the same, and to the ages;

⁹ with teachings manifold and strange be not carried about, for [it is] good that by grace the heart be confirmed, not with meats, in which they who were occupied were not profited;

¹⁰ we have an altar, of which to eat they have no authority who the tabernacle are serving,

¹¹ for of those beasts whose blood is brought for sin into the holy places through the chief priest -- of these the bodies are burned without the camp.

¹² Wherefore, also Jesus -- that he might sanctify through [his] own blood the people -- without the gate did suffer;

¹³ now, then, may we go forth unto him without the camp, his reproach bearing;

¹⁴ for we have not here an abiding city, but the coming one we seek;

¹⁵ through him, then, we may offer up a sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of lips, giving thanks to His name;

¹⁶ and of doing good, and of fellowship, be not forgetful, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.

¹⁷ Be obedient to those leading you, and be subject, for these do watch for your souls, as about to give account, that with joy they may do this, and not sighing, for this [is] unprofitable to you.

¹⁸ Pray for us, for we trust that we have a good conscience, in all things willing to behave well,

¹⁹ and more abundantly do I call upon [you] to do this, that more quickly I may be restored to you.

²⁰ And the God of the peace, who did bring up out of the dead the great shepherd of the sheep -- in the blood of an age-during covenant -- our Lord Jesus,

²¹ make you perfect in every good work to do His will, doing in you that which is well-pleasing before Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom [is] the glory -- to the ages of the ages! Amen.