Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

²² “So tell the Israelites, ‘The Lord and King speaks. He says, “People of Israel, I will not take action for your benefit. Instead, I will act for the honor of my holy name. You have treated it as if it were not holy. You did it everywhere you went among the nations. ²³ But I will show everyone how holy my great name is. You have treated it as if it were not holy. So I will use you to prove to the nations how holy I am. Then they will know that I am the Lord,” announces the Lord and King.

²⁴ “ ‘ “I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you together from all the countries. I will bring you back into your own land. ²⁵ I will sprinkle pure water on you. Then you will be ‘clean.’ I will make you completely pure and ‘clean.’ I will take all the statues of your gods away from you. ²⁶ I will give you new hearts. I will give you a new spirit that is faithful to me. I will remove your stubborn hearts from you. I will give you hearts that obey me. ²⁷ I will put my Spirit in you. I will make you want to obey my rules. I want you to be careful to keep my laws. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land I gave your people of long ago. You will be my people. And I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all your ‘uncleanness.’ I will give you plenty of grain. You will have more than enough. So you will never be hungry again. ³⁰ I will multiply the fruit on your trees. I will increase the crops in your fields. Then the nations will no longer make fun of you because you are hungry. ³¹ You will remember your evil ways and the sinful things you have done. You will hate yourselves because you have sinned so much. I also hate your evil practices. ³² I want you to know that I am not doing those things for your benefit,” announces the Lord and King. “People of Israel, you should be ashamed of yourselves! Your conduct has brought dishonor to you.” ’ ”

⁵³ Then they all went home. 8 ¹ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

² At sunrise he arrived again in the temple courtyard. All the people gathered around him there. He sat down to teach them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman. She had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of the group. ⁴ They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who was not her husband. ⁵ In the Law, Moses commanded us to kill such women by throwing stones at them. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were trying to trap Jesus with that question. They wanted to have a reason to bring charges against him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ They kept asking him questions. So he stood up and said to them, “Has any one of you not sinned? Then you be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ He bent down again and wrote on the ground.

⁹ Those who heard what he had said began to go away. They left one at a time, the older ones first. Soon only Jesus was left. The woman was still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Hasn’t anyone found you guilty?”

¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then I don’t find you guilty either,” Jesus said. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”