Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Arrival of the Lover
The Beloved about Her Lover:
8 Listen![a] My lover is approaching![b]
Look![c] Here he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills!
9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.[d]
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the window,
peering through the lattice.
The Season of Love and the Song of the Turtledove
The Lover to His Beloved:
10 My lover spoke to me, saying:
“Arise, my darling;
My beautiful one, come away with me!
11 Look! The winter has passed,
the winter rains are over and gone.
12 Blossoms have appeared[e] in the land,
the time for pruning and singing[f] has come;
the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree has ripened its figs,
the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance.
Arise, come away my darling;
my beautiful one, come away with me!”
Psalm 45[a]
For the music director, according to the tune of “Lilies”;[b] by the Korahites, a well-written poem,[c] a love song.
45 My heart is stirred by a beautiful song.[d]
I say, “I have composed this special song[e] for the king;
my tongue is as skilled as the stylus of an experienced scribe.”[f]
2 You are the most handsome of all men.[g]
You speak in an impressive and fitting manner.[h]
For this reason[i] God grants you continual blessings.[j]
6 Your throne,[a] O God, is permanent.[b]
The scepter[c] of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7 You love[d] justice and hate evil.[e]
For this reason God, your God,[f] has anointed you[g]
with the oil of joy,[h] elevating you above your companions.[i]
8 All your garments are perfumed with[j] myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
From the luxurious palaces[k] comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy.[l]
9 Princesses[m] are among your honored women.[n]
Your bride[o] stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir.[p]
17 All generous giving and every perfect gift[a] is from above, coming down[b] from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change.[c] 18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth[d] through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Living Out the Message
19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters![e] Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. 20 For human[f] anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.[g] 21 So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly[h] welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone[i] who gazes at his own face[j] in a mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets[k] what sort of person he was. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there,[l] and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out—he[m] will be blessed in what he does.[n] 26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before[o] God the Father[p] is this: to care for orphans and widows in their adversity[q] and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Breaking Human Traditions
7 Now[a] the Pharisees[b] and some of the experts in the law[c] who came from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples[d] ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing,[e] holding fast to the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the marketplace,[f] they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.[g])[h] 5 The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat[i] with unwashed hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart[j] is far from me.
7 They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’[k]
8 Having no regard[l] for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.”[m]
21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. 23 All these evils come from within and defile a person.”
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