Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.(A)
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.(B)
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.(C)
10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.(D)
11 I know all the birds of the air,[a]
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.(E)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and pay your vows to the Most High.(F)
15 Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”(G)
40 Let us test and examine our ways
and return to the Lord.(A)
41 Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
to God in heaven.(B)
42 We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.(C)
43 You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;(D)
44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us filth and rubbish
among the peoples.(E)
46 All our enemies
have opened their mouths against us;(F)
47 panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.(G)
48 My eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of my people.[a]
49 My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,(H)
50 until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees.(I)
51 My eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the young women in my city.
52 Those who were my enemies without cause
have hunted me like a bird;(J)
53 they flung me alive into a pit
and hurled stones on me;(K)
54 water closed over my head;
I said, “I am lost.”(L)
55 I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;(M)
56 you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear
to my cry for help, but give me relief!”(N)
57 You came near when I called on you;
you said, “Do not fear!”(O)
58 You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.(P)
Paul on the Island of Malta
28 After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta.(A) 2 The local people showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it.(B) 3 Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the local people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”(C) 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.(D) 6 They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.(E)
7 Now in the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. 8 It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him.(F) 9 After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. 10 They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.