Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³⁷ You are right and good, O Lord, and Your Law is right. ¹³⁸ The Law You have made is right and good and very faithful. ¹³⁹ I feel weak because those who hate me have forgotten Your Word. ¹⁴⁰ Your Word is very pure and Your servant loves it. ¹⁴¹ I am not important and I am hated but I do not forget Your Law. ¹⁴² You are right forever, and Your Law is truth. ¹⁴³ Trouble and suffering have come upon me, yet Your Word is my joy. ¹⁴⁴ Your Law is right forever. Give me understanding and I will live.

It Is Bad for the Wrong-Doers

⁵ “Also, wine fools the proud man, so he does not stay at home. He is like the grave who always wants more. Like death, he never has enough. He gathers all nations for himself, and gathers all people for his own. ⁶ “Will not all these people make fun of him and say, ‘It is bad for him who gathers what is not his and makes himself rich with other people’s money. How long will this go on?’ ⁷ Will not those to whom you owe money rise up all at once? Will they not wake up and make you afraid? Then they will take what belongs to you. ⁸ Because you have robbed many nations, the rest of them will rob you. For you have killed men. You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

⁹ “It is bad for him who builds his house by sinful ways, to put his nest in a high place to be safe from trouble! ¹⁰ You have brought shame upon your house by destroying many nations. You are sinning against yourself. ¹¹ The stone will cry out from the wall, and the roof will answer it from the wood.

³⁹ They said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said, “If you were children of Abraham, you would do what he did. ⁴⁰ I am a Man Who has told you the truth as I heard it from God. Now you are trying to kill Me. Abraham never did anything like that. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your father.” They said to Him, “We were born of parents who were faithful in marriage. We have one Father. He is God.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love Me. I came from God. I did not come on My own, but God sent Me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you do not want to hear My teaching. ⁴⁴ The devil is your father. You are from him. You want to do the sinful things your father, the devil, wants you to do. He has been a killer from the beginning. The devil has nothing to do with the truth. There is no truth in him. It is expected of the devil to lie, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ I tell you the truth and that is why you do not put your trust in Me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you can say I am guilty of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe Me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is born of God listens to God’s Word. You do not hear His Word because you are not born of God.”