Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The two paths[a]
1 If someone does not do what wicked people tell him to do,
if he does not join with sinners,
if he does not meet with those who laugh at God,
God has blessed that person!
2 He is happy when he obeys the Law of the Lord.[b]
He thinks about God's Law during the day and at night.
3 He will become like a tree that grows beside streams of water.
It gives its fruit at the right season.
Its leaves do not fall off.
Everything that person does will have a good result.
4 But wicked people are as empty as chaff.
The wind blows them away.[c]
5 So they will not go free when God judges them.
Sinners cannot join with God's people,
the people who are right with God.[d]
6 The Lord takes care of people who respect him.
But wicked people are living in a way that will take them to a bad end.
17 ‘The people of Judah love to do bad things.[a]
Their sins are deep inside them.
It is like they are written on their hearts
and on the horns of their altars.
They are written with an iron pen.
Nobody can remove the list of their sins.
2 Even their children always think about their altars
where they worship false gods.
They have put up their Asherah poles
under the big trees and on the high hills.
3 They also worship their false gods
on the mountains and in the fields.
So I will cause enemies to take all your valuable things.
They will take your riches for themselves.
That will be the price that you pay for your sins.
You have done evil things everywhere in the land.
4 I gave you this land to be your home for ever.
But it will no longer belong to you.
Your enemies will take you to a land that you do not know.
You will be their slaves.
You have made me very angry,
like a fire that nobody can stop.’
24 Jesus then said, ‘When a bad spirit goes out of a person, it travels through dry places. It looks for a new place to live. But maybe it does not find anywhere. So it says to itself, “I will return to the place where I lived before.” 25 Then it goes back to that person. It finds that the place is empty. Everything there is now good and clean. 26 So the bad spirit goes out and it brings back seven other spirits. They are even worse than itself. They all go into the person and they live there. Now the person's life is even worse than it was before.’[a]
27 While Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd shouted out. ‘How happy is the woman that gave birth to you! How happy is the woman that fed you from her breasts!’
28 Jesus replied, ‘It is the people who hear God's message who are happy. They are happy if they obey it.’
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