Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21
But You, O God, the Lord, show kindness to me, for Your name’s sake;
Because Your lovingkindness (faithfulness, compassion) is good, O rescue me;
22
For I am suffering and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.
23
I am vanishing like a shadow when it lengthens and fades;
I am shaken off like the locust.
24
My knees are unsteady from fasting;
And my flesh is gaunt and without fatness.
25
I also have become a reproach and an object of taunting to others;
When they see me, they shake their heads [in derision].(A)
26
Help me, O Lord my God;
Save me according to Your lovingkindness—
27
And let them know that this is Your hand;
You, Lord, have done it.
28
Let them curse, but You bless.
When adversaries arise, let them be ashamed,
But let Your servant rejoice.
29
Let my attackers be clothed with dishonor,
And let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.
30
I will give great praise and thanks to the Lord with my mouth;
And in the midst of many I will praise Him.
31
For He will stand at the right hand of the needy,
To save him from those who judge his soul.
God’s Dealings with Israel Rehearsed
20 In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month [after the beginning of the exile in Babylon], certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat down before me.(A) 2 Then came the word of the Lord to me, saying, 3 “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you.”’ 4 Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Then make them know [accurately] and understand fully the repulsive acts of their fathers;(B) 5 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “On the day when I chose Israel and lifted up My hand and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God, 6 on that day I swore to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had selected for them, [plentiful and] [a]flowing with milk and honey, [a land] which is an ornament and a glory to all lands. 7 Then I said to them, ‘Let every man throw away the detestable things on which he feasts his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’ 8 But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not throw away the detestable things on which they feasted their eyes, nor did they [b]give up the idols of Egypt.
“Then I decided to pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the land of Egypt. 9 But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 10 So I made them leave the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. 11 I gave them My statutes and explained My ordinances to them, which, if a man keeps, he will live. 12 Also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord who sanctifies them (separates and sets them apart). 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they despised and rejected My ordinances, which, if a man keeps, he will live; and they greatly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I decided to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. 14 But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations in whose sight I had brought them out [of slavery]. 15 I also swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, [a land of plenty] [c]flowing with milk and honey, which is the ornament and glory of all lands, 16 because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My Sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their [worthless] idols. 17 Yet My eye [looked on them with compassion and] spared them instead of destroying them, and I did not annihilate them in the wilderness.
7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today if you hear His voice,
8
Do not harden your hearts as [your fathers did] in the rebellion [of Israel at [a]Meribah],
On the day of testing in the wilderness,
9
Where your fathers tried Me by testing [My forbearance and tolerance],
And saw My works for forty years
[And found I stood their test].
10
“Therefore I was angered with this generation,
And I said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways [nor become progressively better and more intimately acquainted with them]’;
11
So I swore [an oath] in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest [the promised land].’”(A)
The Peril of Unbelief
12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that there not be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving [b]heart [which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord, a heart] that turns away from the living God. 13 But continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today” [and there is an opportunity], so that none of you will be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [its cleverness, delusive glamour, and sophistication]. 14 For we [believers] have become partakers of Christ [sharing in all that the Messiah has for us], if only we hold firm our newborn confidence [which originally led us to Him] until the end, 15 while it is said,
“Today [while there is still opportunity] if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your heart, as when they provoked Me [in the rebellion in the desert at Meribah].”(B)
16 For who were they who heard and yet provoked Him [with rebellious acts]? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies were scattered in the desert? 18 And to whom did He swear [an oath] that they would not enter His rest, but to those who disobeyed [those who would not listen to His word]? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter [into His rest—the promised land] because of unbelief and an unwillingness to trust in God.(C)
The Believer’s Rest
4 Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still remains and is freely offered today, let us fear, in case any one of you may seem to come short of reaching it or think he has come too late. 2 For indeed we have had the good news [of salvation] preached to us, just as the Israelites also [when the good news of the promised land came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith [in God] by those who heard. 3 For we who believe [that is, we who personally trust and confidently rely on God] enter that rest [so we have His inner peace now because we are confident in our salvation, and assured of His power], just as He has said,
“As I swore [an oath] in My wrath,
They shall not enter My rest,”
[this He said] although His works were [c]completed from the foundation of the world [waiting for all who would believe].(D)
4 For somewhere [in Scripture] He has said this about the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;(E) 5 and again in this, “They shall not enter My rest.”(F) 6 Therefore, since the promise remains for some to enter His rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them failed to [grasp it and did not] enter because of [their unbelief evidenced by] disobedience, 7 He again sets a definite day, [a new] “Today,” [providing another opportunity to enter that rest by] saying through David after so long a time, just as has been said before [in the words already quoted],
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”(G)
8 [This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak about another day [of opportunity] after that. 9 So there remains a [full and complete] Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has once entered His rest has also rested from [the weariness and pain of] his [human] labors, just as God rested from [those labors uniquely] His own.(H) 11 Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness].
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