Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴¹ Let Your mercy and loving-kindness come also to me, O Lord, even Your salvation according to Your promise;

⁴² Then shall I have an answer for those who taunt and reproach me, for I lean on, rely on, and trust in Your word.

⁴³ And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I hope in Your ordinances.

⁴⁴ I will keep Your law continually, forever and ever [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].

⁴⁵ And I will walk at liberty and at ease, for I have sought and inquired for [and desperately required] Your precepts.

⁴⁶ I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings and will not be put to shame.^(A)

⁴⁷ For I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.

⁴⁸ My hands also will I lift up [in fervent supplication] to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.

³⁸ Aaron the priest went up on Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, the first day of the fifth month.^(A)

³⁹ Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁸ If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well.^(A)

⁹ But if you show servile regard (prejudice, favoritism) for people, you commit sin and are rebuked and convicted by the Law as violators and offenders.

¹⁰ For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.

¹¹ For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the [whole] Law.^(B)

¹² So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].

¹³ For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.