Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Praise to the Merciful God
113 Hallelujah!
Give praise, servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.(A)
2 Let the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and for ever.(B)
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
let the name of the Lord be praised.(C)
4 The Lord is exalted above all the nations,(D)
his glory above the heavens.(E)
5 Who is like the Lord our God –
the one enthroned on high,(F)
6 who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?(G)
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the rubbish heap(H)
8 in order to seat them with nobles –
with the nobles of his people.(I)
9 He gives the childless woman a household,
making her the joyful mother of children.(J)
Hallelujah!
Laws about Honesty and Justice
23 ‘You must not spread a false report. Do not join[a] the wicked to be a malicious witness.(A)
2 ‘You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice.(B) 3 Do not show favouritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.
4 ‘If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
5 ‘If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it.[b](C)
6 ‘You must not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit. 7 Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty.(D) 8 You must not take a bribe,(E) for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words[c] of the righteous. 9 You must not oppress a resident foreigner;(F) you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident foreigner because you were resident foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Paul Answers an Objection
3 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted(A) with the very words of God.(B) 3 What then? If some were unfaithful,(C) will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not!(D) Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar,(E) as it is written:
5 But if our unrighteousness highlights[b] God’s righteousness,(G) what are we to say?(H) I am using a human argument:[c](I) Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?(J) 7 But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?(K) 8 And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, ‘Let us do what is evil so that good may come’?(L) Their condemnation is deserved!
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