Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
ב Beth
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping your[a] word.(A)
10 I have sought you with all my heart;(B)
don’t let me wander from your commands.(C)
11 I have treasured your word in my heart(D)
so that I may not sin against you.
12 Lord, may you be blessed;
teach me your statutes.(E)
13 With my lips I proclaim
all the judgments from your mouth.(F)
14 I rejoice in the way revealed by your decrees(G)
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts(H)
and think about your ways.(I)
16 I will delight in your statutes;(J)
I will not forget your word.
8 Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes,(A)
and are deaf, yet have ears.
9 All the nations are gathered together,
and the peoples are assembled.(B)
Who among them can declare this,(C)
and tell us the former things?
Let them present their witnesses
to vindicate themselves,
so that people may hear and say, “It is true.”
10 “You are my witnesses”(D)—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“and my servant whom I have chosen,(E)
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.(F)
No god was formed before me,
and there will be none after me.(G)
11 I—I am the Lord.
Besides me, there is no Savior.(H)
12 I alone declared, saved, and proclaimed—
and not some foreign god[a] among you.
So you are my witnesses”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“and[b] I am God.(I)
13 Also, from today on I am he alone,
and none can rescue from my power.(J)
I act, and who can reverse it?” (K)
Paul’s Competence
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 It is not that we are competent in[a] ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.(A) 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant,(B) not of the letter,(C) but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
New Covenant Ministry
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,(D) so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. 10 In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was set aside(E) was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.
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