Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

ב Beth

Keeping Vows

²¹ ‘If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to keep it, because he will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin. ²² But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin. ²³ Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised to the Lord your God.^(A)

Neighbour’s Crops

²⁴ ‘When you enter your neighbour’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but do not put any in your container. ²⁵ When you enter your neighbour’s standing corn, you may pluck ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbour’s corn.

Marriage and Divorce Laws

24 ‘If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write a divorce certificate for her, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.^{(B) 2} If after leaving his house she goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and the second man hates her, writes a divorce certificate for her, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies, ⁴ the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^(C)

Consideration for People in Need

¹⁰ ‘When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbour, do not enter his house to collect what he offers as security. ¹¹ Stand outside while the man you are making the loan to brings the security out to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, do not sleep with the garment he has given as security. ¹³ Be sure to return it^[a] to him at sunset. Then he will sleep in it and bless you, and this will be counted as righteousness to you before the Lord your God.^(A)

¹⁴ ‘Do not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your Israelite brothers or one of the resident foreigners in a town^[b] in your land. ¹⁵ You are to pay him his wages each day before the sun sets, because he is poor and depends on them.^(B) Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty.

The Sin of Favouritism

2 My brothers and sisters, do not show favouritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{(A) 2} For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, ³ if you look with favour on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Sit here in a good place,’ and yet you say to the poor person, ‘Stand over there,’ or ‘Sit here on the floor by my footstool,’ ⁴ haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world^(B) to be rich in faith^(C) and heirs^(D) of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ Yet you have dishonoured the poor.^(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(F) you into court? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?^(G)

⁸ Indeed, if you fulfil the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbour as yourself,^[a](H) you are doing well. ⁹ If, however, you show favouritism,^(I) you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.^{(J) 11} For he who said, Do not commit adultery,^[b] also said, Do not murder.^[c](K) So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.

¹² Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.^{(L) 13} For judgement is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.^(M) Mercy triumphs over judgement.