Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 106[a]
106 Praise the Lord.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures.[b]
2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts,
or relate all his praiseworthy deeds?[c]
3 How blessed are those who promote justice,
and do what is right all the time.
4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.
Pay attention to me, when you deliver,
5 so I may see the prosperity[d] of your chosen ones,
rejoice along with your nation,[e]
and boast along with the people who belong to you.[f]
6 We have sinned like[g] our ancestors;[h]
we have done wrong, we have done evil.
13 They quickly forgot what he had done;[a]
they did not wait for his instructions.[b]
14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving[c] for meat;[d]
they challenged God[e] in the wastelands.
15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease.[f]
16 In the camp they resented[g] Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.[h]
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed[i] the group led by Abiram.[j]
18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked.[k]
19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
20 They traded their majestic God[l]
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
21 They rejected[m] the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty acts[n] by the Red Sea.
23 He threatened[o] to destroy them,
but[p] Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him[q]
and turned back his destructive anger.[r]
21 But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he[a] is about to give you.[b] 22 So I must die here in this land; I will not cross the Jordan. But you are going over and will possess that[c] good land. 23 Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he[d] has forbidden[e] you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God.[f]
Threat and Blessing following Covenant Disobedience
25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time,[g] if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind[h] and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him,[i] 26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you[j] today that you will surely and swiftly be removed[k] from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be[l] annihilated. 27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you[m] among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 There you will worship gods made by human hands—wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul.[n] 30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in future days, if you return to the Lord your God and obey him[o] 31 (for he[p] is a merciful God), he will not let you down[q] or destroy you, for he cannot[r] forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.
The Uniqueness of Israel’s God
32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind[s] on the earth, and ask[t] from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 34 Or has God[u] ever before tried to deliver[v] a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments,[w] signs, wonders, war, strength, power,[x] and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God—there is no other besides him. 36 From heaven he spoke to you in order to teach you, and on earth he showed you his great fire from which you also heard his words.[y] 37 Moreover, because he loved[z] your ancestors, he chose their[aa] descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power 38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property.[ab] 39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below—there is no other! 40 Keep his statutes and commandments that I am setting forth[ac] today so that it may go well with you and your descendants and that you may enjoy longevity in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you as a permanent possession.”
9 He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up[a] your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[b] and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’[c] 11 But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’[d] (that is, a gift for God), 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify[e] the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”
14 Then[f] he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. 15 There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”[g]
17 Now[h] when Jesus[i] had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? 19 For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.”[j] (This means all foods are clean.)[k] 20 He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. 23 All these evils come from within and defile a person.”
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