Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 I must be patient as I wait for God to help me.
He is the only one that I can trust for help.
6 He alone is the strong rock
where I can hide and be safe.
With him, nothing will make me fall.
7 It is God who has kept me safe,
and he has made me great.
He is the strong place
where I can hide and be safe.
8 Yes, my friends,
you should always trust in God!
Tell him about all the troubles in your thoughts.
God is our safe place to hide!
Selah.
9 People are only as light as a breath!
Whoever they are, they are not important.
If you try to weigh them, all together,
they weigh less than a breath of air.[a]
10 Do not cheat people,
or rob them to get money!
That will not give you anything
that you can trust to help you.
Even if you become very rich,
do not think it is important.
11 I have heard God speak his truth
once, no twice!
God has great strength.
12 And also, my Lord, you have a faithful love.
You pay back to everybody what they should get
for the things that they have done.
14 I would like to curse the day that I was born.
That day was not a happy day,
the day that my mother gave birth to me.
15 That day, a man told my father,
‘Good news! You have a son!’
I would like to curse that man too.
16 May the Lord destroy that man,
as he completely destroyed those cities long ago.[a]
I want that man to hear people who are weeping in the morning.
I want him to hear the noise of battles at noon.
17 He should have killed me before I was born.
I should have died inside my mother.
She would have held me inside her.
That would have been my grave for ever.
18 I should have stayed in that safe place.
In my life, I only receive trouble and pain.
When I die, all I will have is shame.
Some towns where people did not believe
13 Jesus then said, ‘You people in Chorazin, things will be bad for you! And things will be bad for you, people in Bethsaida. I have done great and powerful things in your cities. If I had done such great things in Tyre and in Sidon, the people there would have changed how they lived. They would have shown that they were sorry for their sins. They would have put on rough clothes. They would also have put ashes on their heads. 14 Yes, when God judges everyone, he will punish the people of Tyre and Sidon. But he will punish even more you people from Chorazin and Bethsaida. 15 And what will happen to you people in Capernaum? You think that God will lift you up to heaven, do you? No! He will throw you down to Hades, the place for dead people!’[a]
16 Jesus then said to his disciples, ‘Whoever listens to you is also listening to me. Whoever does not accept you does not accept me. And whoever does not accept me does not accept my Father God, who sent me.’
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