Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

ב Bet

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^[a] to the Lord your God.^(A)

Neighbor’s Crops

²⁴ “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but you must not put any in your container. ²⁵ When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

Marriage and Divorce Laws

24 “If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something improper about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, 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 her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he^[b] 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 neighbor, do not enter his house to collect what he offers as security. ¹¹ You must stand outside while the man you are making the loan to brings the security out to you. ¹² If he is a poor man, you must not sleep in 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 hand who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or one of the foreigners residing within 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 Favoritism

2 My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{(A) 2} For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. ³ If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” ⁴ haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers: 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 dishonored that poor man.^(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(F) you into the courts? ⁷ Don’t they blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you at your baptism?^(G)

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

¹² Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom.^{(L) 13} For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy.^(M) Mercy triumphs over judgment.