Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.
128 Blessed are all those who have respect for the Lord.
They live as he wants them to live.
2 Your work will give you what you need.
Blessings and good things will come to you.
3 As a vine bears a lot of fruit,
so may your wife have many children by you.
May they sit around your table
like young olive trees.
4 Only a man who has respect for the Lord
will be blessed like that.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion.
May you enjoy the good things that come to Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your grandchildren.
May Israel enjoy peace.
12 So the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel. On that day Joshua spoke to the Lord while the Israelites were listening. He said,
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon.
And you, moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still.
The moon stopped.
They didn’t move again until the nation won the battle over its enemies.
You can read about it in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky. It didn’t go down for about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since. It was a day when the Lord listened to a mere human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
What Makes People “Unclean”?
15 Some Pharisees and some teachers of the law came from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked, 2 “Why don’t your disciples obey what the elders teach? Your disciples don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why don’t you obey God’s command? You would rather follow your own teachings! 4 God said, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) He also said, ‘Anyone who asks for bad things to happen to their father or mother must be put to death.’ (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9) 5 But suppose people have something that might be used to help their parents. You allow them to say it is instead ‘a gift set apart for God.’ 6 So they do not need to honor their father or mother with their gift. You make the word of God useless in order to follow your own teachings. 7 You pretenders! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. He said,
8 “ ‘These people honor me by what they say.
But their hearts are far away from me.
9 Their worship doesn’t mean anything to me.
They teach nothing but human rules.’ ” (Isaiah 29:13)
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