Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
16 But to those acting against Him, God says,
“Who do you think you are?
Listing off My laws,
acting as if your life is in alignment with My ways?
17 For it’s clear that you despise My guidance;
you throw My wise words over your shoulder.
18 You play with thieves,
spend your time with adulterers.
19 Evil runs out of your mouth;
your tongue is wrapped in deceit.
20 You sit back and gossip about your brother;
you slander your mother’s son.
21 While you did these things, I kept silent;
somehow you got the idea that I was like you.
But now My silence ends, and I am going to indict you.
I’ll state the charge against you clearly, face-to-face.
22 All you who have forgotten Me, your God, should think about what I have said,
or I will tear you apart and leave no one to save you.
23 Set out a sacrifice I can accept: your thankfulness.
Do this, and you will honor Me.
Those who straighten up their lives
will know the saving grace of God.”
15 Then Nathan left the king’s presence and went down to his house.
The Eternal One struck the child born to Uriah’s widow and David so that he became very sick. 16 So David appealed to the True God for the life of his son. David went without food; he lay on the ground praying all night. 17 The elders from his household, the most highly honored of his servants, tried to pull him up off the ground and to make him eat, but he would not.
18 After seven days of this, the child died, and David’s servants were afraid to bring him the news.
Servants (to one another): If the king did not listen to us while his son was still alive, how can we tell him his son is dead? He may hurt himself in some way.
19 When David saw his servants whispering among themselves, he immediately realized the boy was dead.
David (to his servants): Is my son dead?
Servants: Yes, he is dead.
20 Then David stood up, washed, anointed himself with sweet-smelling oils, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Eternal and worshiped. Then he returned to his house and asked for food; and when it was brought to him, he ate.
Servants (to David): 21 We don’t understand. When your son was alive, you wept and you refused to eat; now that he is dead, it is as if nothing is wrong—you are up and about and eating.
David: 22 While my son was still alive, I wept and fasted with all my being because I thought to myself, “Who knows? There is still a chance that the Eternal One will have mercy on me and let my child live.” 23 But now that he is dead, why should I continue without eating? Will that bring my son back to life? Someday when I die I will go where he has gone, but he will never come back to me here.
24 David went in to console his wife, Bathsheba. In time they slept together, and she became pregnant. When their second son was born, David named him Solomon. The Eternal loved the boy 25 and sent word by the prophet Nathan that they should call Solomon “Jedidiah.”
17 Therefore, as a witness of the Lord, I insist on this: that you no longer walk in the outsiders’ ways—with minds devoted to worthless pursuits. 18 They are blind to true understanding. They are strangers and aliens to the kind of life God has for them because they live in ignorance and immorality and because their hearts are cold, hard stones. 19 And now, since they’ve lost all natural feelings, they have given themselves over to sensual, greedy, and reckless living. They stop at nothing to satisfy their impure appetites.
20 But this is not the path of the Anointed One, which you have learned. 21 If you have heard Jesus and have been taught by Him according to the truth that is in Him, 22 then you know to take off your former way of life, your crumpled old self—that dark blot of a soul corrupted by deceitful desire and lust— 23 to take a fresh breath and to let God renew your attitude and spirit. 24 Then you are ready to put on your new self, modeled after the very likeness of God: truthful, righteous, and holy.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.