Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Woman Speaks Again
8 I hear ·my lover’s voice [the sound of my lover].
Here he comes ·jumping [leaping] across the mountains,
·skipping [bounding] over the hills [C he moves with agile grace and speed].
9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young ·deer [stag].
Look, he stands behind our wall
·peeking [staring] through the windows,
looking through the ·blinds [lattice].
10 My lover spoke and said to me,
“·Get [Rise] up, my darling;
let’s go away, my beautiful one.
11 Look, the winter is past;
the rains are over and gone [C spring has arrived, the time of love].
12 Blossoms appear through all the land.
The time has come to sing;
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
13 There are young figs ·on [L ripening on] the fig trees,
and the blossoms on the vines ·smell sweet [L spread their fragrance].
·Get [Rise] up, my darling;
let’s go away, my beautiful one.”
A Song for the King’s Wedding
For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” A ·maskil [skillful psalm; meditation]. A love song of the sons of Korah [C descendants of Kohath, son of Levi, who served as Temple musicians; 1 Chr. 6:22].
45 ·Beautiful words fill my mind [L My heart is stirred with a good word].
I ·am speaking of royal things [or address my work to the king].
My tongue is like the pen of a skilled writer [Ezra 7:6].
2 You are more ·handsome [or excellent] than anyone,
and ·you are an excellent speaker [L grace flows from your lips; Prov. 22:11],
so God has blessed you forever.
6 ·God, your throne will last [or Your throne is a throne of God] forever and ever.
·You will rule your kingdom with fairness [L A scepter of virtue will be the scepter of your kingdom].
7 You love ·right [righteousness] and hate ·evil [wickedness],
so God has ·chosen [anointed] you from among your ·friends [companions];
·he has set you apart with much joy [L …with the oil of joy; C kings were anointed with oil at their coronation; 1 Sam. 10:1; 16:13; Heb. 1:8–9].
8 Your clothes smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
From palaces of ivory
·music [stringed instruments] comes to make you happy.
9 Kings’ daughters are among your honored women.
Your ·bride [queen; consort] stands at your right side
wearing gold from Ophir [C perhaps a region in southern Arabia].
17 Every good ·action [or act of giving] and every perfect gift ·is from God [L comes from above]. These good gifts come down from the ·Creator of the sun, moon, and stars [L the father of lights; C referring to God’s creation of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14–19; Ps. 136:7–9; Jer. 31:35)], who does not change like their shifting shadows. 18 God ·decided [chose; willed] to give us ·life [birth] through the ·word of truth [true message] so we might be ·the most important [or the first of many; L a kind of firstfruits; C firstfruits were the first crops to be harvested and guaranteed the coming harvest; Ex. 34:22; 2 Thess. 2:13; Rev. 14:4] of all ·the things he made [or his creatures].
Listening and Obeying
19 My ·dear [L beloved] brothers and sisters [C fellow believers], [L under-stand/know this:] ·always be willing to listen and slow to speak. Do not become angry easily [L be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; Prov. 17:28], 20 ·because anger will not help you live the right kind of life God wants [L because human anger does not produce God’s righteousness]. 21 So ·put out of your life [get rid of; lay aside] every ·evil thing [moral filth/defilement] and every ·kind of wrong [excessive evil]. Then in ·gentleness [humility] ·accept [welcome] God’s ·teaching [word] that is planted in your hearts, which can save ·you [L your souls; C referring to the whole person].
22 ·Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves [L Be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves; Luke 11:28; Rom. 2:13]. 23 Those who hear God’s ·teaching [word] and do nothing are like people who look at ·themselves [their natural face; L the face of their birth] in a mirror. 24 [L For] They ·see their faces [gaze at themselves] and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like. 25 But ·the truly happy people are [L blessed are] those who ·carefully study [look intently into; L stoop down to look at] God’s perfect law that makes people free [C probably refers to the law of Moses as it is fulfilled in Christ; 2:8, 12], and they ·continue to study it [persevere in it]. ·They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God’s teaching says [L not being a forgetful hearer but an active doer]. Those who do this will be ·made happy [blessed].
The True Way to Worship God
26 People who think they are religious but ·say things they should not say [L do not bridle their tongues; 3:1–12; 4:11–12] are just ·fooling [deceiving] themselves. Their “religion” is ·worth nothing [empty; meaningless]. 27 Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and ·without fault [undefiled] is this: caring for orphans and widows [2:1–13, 15–16; Ex. 22:22; Deut. 14:29] ·who need help [L in their trouble/distress/persecution], and keeping yourself ·free from the world’s evil influence [L unstained/unpolluted by the world; 4:4–10].
The Things that Truly Please God(A)
7 When some Pharisees and some ·teachers of the law [scribes] came from Jerusalem, they gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw that some of Jesus’ ·followers [disciples] ate food with hands that were not clean, that is, they hadn’t [ceremonially] washed them. 3 ([For] The Pharisees and all the Jews never eat before washing their hands ·in the way required [L with a fist; C the meaning of the idiom is uncertain; it could mean “with a handful of water,” “with cupped hand,” “up to the wrist” or something else] by ·their unwritten laws [L the traditions of the elders]. 4 ·And when they buy something in the market, they never eat it [or, And when they come from the market (where they might have touched something “unclean”), they do not eat] until they wash themselves in a special way. They also ·follow [hold fast to; observe] many other ·unwritten laws [traditions], such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and pots.[a])
5 The Pharisees and the ·teachers of the law [scribes] asked Jesus, “Why don’t your ·followers [disciples] ·obey [walk according to] the ·unwritten laws which have been handed down to us [traditions of the elders]? Why do they eat their food with hands that are ·not clean [defiled]?”
6 Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right when he ·spoke [prophesied] about you hypocrites. ·He wrote [As it is written],
‘These people show honor to me with ·words [L their lips],
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship of me is ·worthless [futile; in vain].
The things they teach are nothing but human ·rules [commandments; Is. 29:13].’
8 You ·have stopped following [neglected; abandoned] the commands of God, and you ·follow [hold on to] only human ·teachings[b] [traditions].”
14 After Jesus called the crowd to him again, he said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand what I am saying. 15 There is nothing people put into their bodies that ·makes them unclean [pollutes/defiles them]. [But rather] People are ·made unclean [polluted; defiled] by the things that come out of them.
21 ·All these evil things begin inside people, in the mind [L For from within, out of human hearts, come]: evil ·thoughts [intentions; ideas], sexual sins, stealing, murder, adultery, 22 greed, ·evil actions [wickedness], ·lying [deceit], ·doing sinful things [indecency; lust; lewdness], ·jealousy [envy; L evil eye], ·speaking evil of others [slander; blasphemy], pride, and foolish living. 23 All these evil things come from inside and make people ·unclean [defiled].”
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