Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Happy Home
A song for going up to worship.
128 Happy are those who respect the Lord
and obey him.
2 You will enjoy what you work for.
You will be blessed with good things.
3 Your wife will give you many children.
She will be like a vine that produces a lot of fruit.
Your children will bring you much good.
They will be like olive branches that produce many olives.
4 This is how the man who respects the Lord
will be blessed.
5 May the Lord bless you from Mount Zion.
May you enjoy the good things of Jerusalem all your life.
6 May you see your grandchildren.
Let there be peace in Israel.
22 “So say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Israel, I am going to act, but not for your sake. Israel, I will do something to help my holy name. You have dishonored it among the nations where you went. 23 I will prove the holiness of my great name. It has been dishonored among the nations. You have dishonored it among these nations. But the nations will know that I am the Lord. I will prove myself holy before their eyes, says the Lord God.
24 “‘I will take you from the nations. I will gather you out of all the lands. And I will bring you back into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols. 26 Also, I will teach you to respect me completely. I will put a new way to think inside you. I will take out the stubborn heart like stone from your bodies. And I will give you an obedient heart of flesh. 27 I will put my Spirit inside you. And I will help you live by my rules. You will be careful to obey my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave to your ancestors. So you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 Also, I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will command the grain to come and grow. I will not allow a time of hunger to hurt you. 30 I will multiply the harvest of the field. You will never again suffer shame among the nations because of hunger. 31 And you will remember your evil ways and the things you did that were not good. Then you will hate yourselves because of your sins and terrible acts that I hate. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, says the Lord God. Be ashamed and embarrassed about your ways, Israel.
53 And everyone left and went home.[a]
The Woman Caught in Adultery
8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 But early in the morning he went back to the Temple. All the people came to Jesus, and he sat and taught them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman there. She had been caught in adultery. They forced the woman to stand before the people. 4 They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught having physical relations with a man who is not her husband. 5 The law of Moses commands that we kill with stones every woman who does this. What do you say we should do?” 6 They were asking this to trick Jesus so that they could have some charge against him.
But Jesus knelt down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 They continued to ask Jesus their question. So he stood up and said, “Is there anyone here who has never sinned? The person without sin can throw the first stone at this woman.” 8 Then Jesus knelt down again and wrote on the ground.
9 Those who heard Jesus began to leave one by one. The older men left first, and then the others. Jesus was left there alone with the woman. She was standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up again and asked her, “Woman, all of those people have gone. Has no one judged you guilty?”
11 She answered, “No one has judged me, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “So I also don’t judge you. You may go now, but don’t sin again.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.