Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
9 O God, I will sing a new song to you.
Accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, I will sing praises to you,
10 the one who delivers[a] kings,
and rescued David his servant from a deadly[b] sword.
11 Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners,[c]
who speak lies,
and make false promises.[d]
12 Then[e] our sons will be like plants,
that quickly grow to full size.[f]
Our daughters will be like corner pillars,[g]
carved like those in a palace.[h]
13 Our storehouses[i] will be full,
providing all kinds of food.[j]
Our sheep will multiply by the thousands
and fill[k] our pastures.[l]
14 Our cattle will be weighted down with produce.[m]
No one will break through our walls,
no one will be taken captive,
and there will be no terrified cries in our city squares.[n]
15 How blessed are the people who experience these things.[o]
How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
The Awakening of Love
The Maidens about His Beloved:
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved?
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you;[a]
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth.[b]
The Nature of True Love
The Beloved to Her Lover:
6 Set me like a cylinder seal[c] over your heart,[d]
like a signet[e] on your arm.[f]
For love is as strong as death,[g]
passion[h] is as unrelenting[i] as Sheol.
Its flames burst forth,[j]
it is a blazing flame.[k]
7 Surging waters cannot quench love;
floodwaters[l] cannot overflow it.
If someone were to offer all his possessions[m] to buy love,[n]
the offer[o] would be utterly despised.[p]
9 He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up[a] your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[b] and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’[c] 11 But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’[d] (that is, a gift for God), 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify[e] the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”
14 Then[f] he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. 15 There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”[g]
17 Now[h] when Jesus[i] had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? 19 For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.”[j] (This means all foods are clean.)[k] 20 He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. 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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