Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Difference between Good and Sinful People

1 Happy is the man who does not walk in the way sinful men tell him to, or stand in the path of sinners, or sit with those who laugh at the truth. ² But he finds joy in the Law of the Lord and thinks about His Law day and night. ³ This man is like a tree planted by rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time and its leaf never dries up. Whatever he does will work out well for him.

⁴ Sinful men are not like this. They are like straw blown away by the wind. ⁵ So the sinful will not stand. They will be told they are guilty and have to suffer for it. Sinners will not stand with those who are right with God. ⁶ For the Lord knows the way of those who are right with Him. But the way of the sinful will be lost from God forever.

Judah’s Sin and the Punishment

17 The sin of Judah is written down with pen of iron and with a sharp diamond. It is written on their hearts and on the horns of their altars. ² Even their children remember their altars and their wooden female goddesses of Asherah by green trees and on the high hills. ³ O My mountain in the country, I will give your money and all your riches to those who fight against you. I will give your high places as the price of your sin through all your land. ⁴ And you yourself will let your land go that I gave you. I will make you serve those who hate you in a land which you do not know. For you have made My an-ger start a fire which will burn forever.

A Person Filled with Bad or Good ^(A)

²⁴ “When a demon is gone out of a man, it goes through dry places to find rest. If it finds none, it says, ‘I will go back to my house I came from.’ ²⁵ When the demon comes back, it finds the house cleaned and looking good. ²⁶ Then the demon goes out and comes back bringing seven demons worse than itself. They go in and live there. In the end that man is worse than at the first.” ²⁷ As Jesus was talking, a woman of the group said with a loud voice, “The woman is happy who gave You birth and who fed You.” ²⁸ But He said, “Yes, but those who hear the Word of God and obey it are happy.”