Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹ How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it].

¹⁰ With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments.^(A)

¹¹ Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

¹² Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

¹³ With my lips have I declared and recounted all the ordinances of Your mouth.

¹⁴ I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.

¹⁵ I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].^(B)

¹⁶ I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

⁸ Bring forth the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears.

⁹ Let all the nations be gathered together and let the peoples be assembled. Who among [the idolaters] could predict this [that Cyrus would be the deliverer of Israel] and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear and acknowledge, It is the truth.^(A)

¹⁰ You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me and remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.

¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.

¹² I have declared [the future] and have saved [the nation in times of danger], and I have shown [that I am God]—when there was no strange and alien god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.

¹³ Yes, from the time of the first existence of day and from this day forth I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder or reverse it?

⁴ Such is the reliance and confidence that we have through Christ toward and with reference to God.

⁵ Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.

⁶ [It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.^(A)

⁷ Now if the dispensation of death engraved in letters on stone [the ministration of the Law], was inaugurated with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brilliance, [a glory] that was to fade and pass away,^(B)

⁸ Why should not the dispensation of the Spirit [this spiritual ^[a]ministry whose task it is to cause men to obtain and be governed by the Holy Spirit] be attended with much greater and more splendid glory?

⁹ For if the service that condemns [the ministration of doom] had glory, how infinitely more abounding in splendor and glory must be the service that makes righteous [the ministry that produces and fosters righteous living and right standing with God]!

¹⁰ Indeed, in view of this fact, what once had splendor [^[b]the glory of the Law in the face of Moses] has come to have no splendor at all, because of the overwhelming glory that exceeds and excels it [^[c]the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ].

¹¹ For if that which was but passing and fading away came with splendor, how much more must that which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!