Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
ב Bet
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping Your[a] word.(A)
10 I have sought You with all my heart;(B)
don’t let me wander from Your commands.(C)
11 I have treasured Your word in my heart(D)
so that I may not sin against You.
12 Lord, may You be praised;
teach me Your statutes.(E)
13 With my lips I proclaim
all the judgments from Your mouth.(F)
14 I rejoice in the way revealed by Your decrees(G)
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts(H)
and think about Your ways.(I)
16 I will delight in Your statutes;(J)
I will not forget Your word.
8 Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes,(A)
and are deaf, yet have ears.
9 All the nations are gathered together,
and the peoples are assembled.(B)
Who among them can declare this,(C)
and tell us the former things?
Let them present their witnesses
to vindicate themselves,
so that people may hear and say, “It is true.”
10 “You are My witnesses”(D)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“and My servant whom I have chosen,(E)
so that you may know and believe Me
and understand that I am He.(F)
No god was formed before Me,
and there will be none after Me.(G)
11 I, I am Yahweh,
and there is no other Savior but Me.(H)
12 I alone declared, saved, and proclaimed—
and not some foreign god[a] among you.
So you are My witnesses”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“and[b] I am God.(I)
13 Also, from today on I am He alone,
and none can deliver from My hand.(J)
I act, and who can reverse it?”(K)
Paul’s Competence
4 We have this kind of confidence toward God through Christ. 5 It is not that we are competent in[a] ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God.(A) 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant,(B) not of the letter,(C) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.
New Covenant Ministry
7 Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,(D) so that the Israelites were not able to look directly at Moses’ face because of the glory from his face—a fading glory— 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was fading away(E) was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.
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