Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

107 Say thank you to the Lord for being so good, for always being so loving and kind. ² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has saved you from your enemies.

³ He brought the exiles back from the farthest corners of the earth. ⁴ They were wandering homeless in the desert, ⁵ hungry and thirsty and faint. ⁶ “Lord, help!” they cried, and he did! ⁷ He led them straight to safety and a place to live.

³³ He dries up rivers ³⁴ and turns the good land of the wicked into deserts of salt. ³⁵ Again, he turns deserts into fertile, watered valleys. ³⁶ He brings the hungry to settle there and build their cities, ³⁷ to sow their fields and plant their vineyards, and reap their bumper crops!

¹⁵ “We’ll defend you with our lives.” Then, since her house was on top of the city wall, she let them down by a rope from a window.

¹⁶ “Escape to the mountains,” she told them. “Hide there for three days until the men who are searching for you have returned; then go on your way.”

^17-18 But before they left, the men had said to her, “We cannot be responsible for what happens to you unless this rope is hanging from this window and unless all your relatives—your father, mother, brothers, and anyone else—are here inside the house. ¹⁹ If they go out into the street, we assume no responsibility whatsoever; but we swear that no one inside this house will be killed or injured. ²⁰ However, if you betray us, then this oath will no longer bind us in any way.”

²¹ “I accept your terms,” she replied. And she left the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

²² The spies went up into the mountains and stayed there three days, until the men who were chasing them had returned to the city after searching everywhere along the road without success. ²³ Then the two spies came down from the mountains and crossed the river and reported to Joshua all that had happened to them.

²⁴ “The Lord will certainly give us the entire land,” they said, “for all the people over there are scared to death of us.”

^13-14 “Woe to you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders. Hypocrites! For you won’t let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven and won’t go in yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all your long, public prayers in the streets, while you are evicting widows from their homes. Hypocrites! ¹⁵ Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all lengths to make one convert, and then turn him into twice the son of hell you are yourselves. ¹⁶ Blind guides! Woe upon you! For your rule is that to swear ‘By God’s Temple’ means nothing—you can break that oath, but to swear ‘By the gold in the Temple’ is binding! ¹⁷ Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold, or the Temple that sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And you say that to take an oath ‘By the altar’ can be broken, but to swear ‘By the gifts on the altar’ is binding! ¹⁹ Blind! For which is greater, the gift on the altar, or the altar itself that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ When you swear ‘By the altar,’ you are swearing by it and everything on it, ²¹ and when you swear ‘By the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God who lives in it. ²² And when you swear ‘By heavens,’ you are swearing by the Throne of God and by God himself.

²³ “Yes, woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things—justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn’t leave the more important things undone. ²⁴ Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

²⁵ “Woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious leaders—hypocrites! You are so careful to polish the outside of the cup, but the inside is foul with extortion and greed. ²⁶ Blind Pharisees! First cleanse the inside of the cup, and then the whole cup will be clean.

²⁷ “Woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious leaders! You are like beautiful mausoleums—full of dead men’s bones, and of foulness and corruption. ²⁸ You try to look like saintly men, but underneath those pious robes of yours are hearts besmirched with every sort of hypocrisy and sin.