Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ “Ah, I hear him—my beloved! Here he comes, leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills. ⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle or young deer. Look, there he is behind the wall, now looking in at the windows.

¹⁰ “My beloved said to me, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. ¹¹ For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ¹² The flowers are springing up and the time of the singing of birds has come. Yes, spring is here.^{[a] 13} The leaves are coming out,^[b] and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’

45 My heart is overflowing with a beautiful thought! I will write a lovely poem to the King, for I am as full of words as the speediest writer pouring out his story.

⁸ Your robes are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. In your palaces of inlaid ivory, lovely music is being played for your enjoyment. ⁹ Kings’ daughters are among your concubines.^[a] Standing beside you is the queen, wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir.

¹⁷ But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light, and he shines forever without change or shadow. ¹⁸ And it was a happy day for him when^[a] he gave us our new lives through the truth of his Word, and we became, as it were, the first children in his new family.

¹⁹ Dear brothers, don’t ever forget that it is best to listen much, speak little, and not become angry; ²⁰ for anger doesn’t make us good, as God demands that we must be.

²¹ So get rid of all that is wrong in your life, both inside and outside, and humbly be glad for the wonderful message we have received, for it is able to save our souls as it takes hold of our hearts.

²² And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don’t fool yourselves. ²³ For if a person just listens and doesn’t obey, he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror; ²⁴ as soon as he walks away, he can’t see himself anymore or remember what he looks like. ²⁵ But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does.

²⁶ Anyone who says he is a Christian but doesn’t control his sharp tongue is just fooling himself, and his religion isn’t worth much. ²⁷ The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father’s point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and who remains true to the Lord—not soiled and dirtied by his contacts with the world.

7 One day some Jewish religious leaders arrived from Jerusalem to investigate him, ² and noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the usual Jewish rituals before eating. ³ (For the Jews, especially the Pharisees, will never eat until they have sprinkled their arms to the elbows,^[a] as required by their ancient traditions. ⁴ So when they come home from the market, they must always sprinkle themselves in this way before touching any food. This is but one of many examples of laws and regulations they have clung to for centuries, and still follow, such as their ceremony of cleansing for pots, pans, and dishes.)

⁵ So the religious leaders asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old customs? For they eat without first performing the washing ceremony.”

^6-7 Jesus replied, “You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, ‘These people speak very prettily about the Lord but they have no love for him at all. Their worship is a farce, for they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.’ How right Isaiah was! ⁸ For you ignore God’s specific orders and substitute your own traditions.

¹⁴ Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. ^15-16 [a]Your souls aren’t harmed by what you eat, but by what you think and say!”

²¹ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, ²² wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God.”