Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a [a]roe or a young hart:
Behold, he standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He glanceth through the lattice.
10 My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past;
The rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the [b]singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
13 The fig-tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom;
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
A song celebrating the king’s marriage.
For the Chief Musician; set to [a]Shoshannim. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves.
6 [a]Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:
A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
7 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness:
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee
With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
8 All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia;
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad.
9 Kings’ daughters are among thy honorable women:
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
17 Every good [a]gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.
19 [b]Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of [c]wickedness, receive with meekness the [d]implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. 23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding [e]his natural face in a mirror: 24 for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. 26 If any man [f]thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
7 And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with [a]defiled, that is, unwashen, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands [b]diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the marketplace, except they [c]bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, [d]washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels[e].) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with [f]defiled hands? 6 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
[g]This people honoreth me with their lips,
But their heart is far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.
8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.
14 And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.[a]
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, [a]evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: 23 all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
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