Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²¹ If you make a vow to Yahweh your Elohim, don’t avoid keeping it. Yahweh your Elohim expects you to keep it. You would be guilty of a sin if you didn’t. ²² If you didn’t make a vow, you would not be guilty. ²³ Make sure you do what you said you would do in your vow. You freely chose to make your vow to Yahweh your Elohim.

²⁴ If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you like until you’re full. But never put any in your basket. ²⁵ If you go into your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick grain by hand. But never use a sickle to cut your neighbor’s grain.

Various Laws

24 This is what you must do if a husband writes out a certificate of divorce, gives it to his wife, and makes her leave his house. (He divorced her because he found out something indecent about her and she no longer pleased him.) ² She might marry another man after she leaves his house. ³ If her second husband doesn’t love her and divorces her, or if he dies, ⁴ her first husband is not allowed to marry her again. She has become unclean.^[a] This would be disgusting in Yahweh’s presence. Don’t pollute with sin the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you as your property.

¹⁰ When you make a loan to your neighbor, don’t go into his house to take a security deposit. ¹¹ Wait outside, and the person to whom you’re making the loan will bring the deposit out to you. ¹² If the person is poor, don’t keep the coat you took as a deposit overnight. ¹³ Make sure you bring it back to him at sunset. When he wears his coat to bed that night, he’ll bless you. You will have done the right thing in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim.

¹⁴ Don’t withhold pay from hired workers who are poor and needy, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your cities. ¹⁵ Pay them each day before sunset because they are poor and need their pay. Otherwise, they will complain to Yahweh about you, and you will be condemned for your sin.

Don’t Favor Rich People over Poor People

2 My brothers and sisters, practice your faith in our glorious Lord Yeshua Christ by not favoring one person over another. ² For example, two men come to your worship service. One man is wearing gold rings and fine clothes; the other man, who is poor, is wearing shabby clothes. ³ Suppose you give special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say to him, “Please have a seat.” But you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet.” ⁴ Aren’t you discriminating against people and using a corrupt standard to make judgments?

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Didn’t God choose poor people in the world to become rich in faith and to receive the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ Yet, you show no respect to poor people. Don’t rich people oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Don’t they curse the good name of Yeshua, the name that was used to bless you?

⁸ You are doing right if you obey this law from the highest authority: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ⁹ If you favor one person over another, you’re sinning, and this law convicts you of being disobedient. ¹⁰ If someone obeys all of God’s laws except one, that person is guilty of breaking all of them. ¹¹ After all, the one who said, “Never commit adultery,” is the same one who said, “Never murder.” If you do not commit adultery but you murder, you become a person who disobeys God’s laws.

¹² Talk and act as people who are going to be judged by laws that bring freedom. ¹³ No mercy will be shown to those who show no mercy to others. Mercy triumphs over judgment.