Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
9 I will sing to you a new song, God.
I will make music to you on my harp.[a]
10 You help kings to win against their enemies.
You also save me, your servant David, from my enemies,
when they try to kill me with their dangerous swords.
11 Keep me safe from the power of foreign people.
They speak lies.
Even when they make a promise, it is false.
12 When our sons are young,
may they grow quickly, like strong plants.
May our daughters become tall and beautiful,
like the beautiful pillars in a king's house.
13 May our homes have plenty of different kinds of food.
May our sheep have thousands of lambs,
so that there is no space in our fields.
14 May our cows become fat.[b]
I pray that our enemies will never knock down our city's walls.
I pray that none of us will become their prisoners.
I pray that nobody will cry in our city's streets because they are afraid.
15 When God does that for a nation,
he has surely blessed those people!
If people know that the Lord is their God,
then God has blessed them!
The young women of Jerusalem:
5 Who is this who is coming from the desert?
Her head is on her lover's shoulder.
The young woman:
Under the apple tree,
I caused your love to wake.
That is the place where your mother became pregnant.
In that place too, your mother gave birth to you in pain.
6 Keep me near to you, like a seal over your heart.[a]
Keep me like a seal on your arm.
Keep me there always,
because love is as powerful as death.
It keeps hold of people as strongly as the grave does.
Love burns like a hot fire.
It burns with bright flames.
7 Even a flood of water cannot stop the flames.
Rivers of water cannot carry it away.
A man might try to give all his riches
to buy a woman's love.
But she would refuse to accept what he offers to her.
9 He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas! 10 For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”[a] 11 But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.” 12 If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother. 13 This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’
14 Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him again. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, so that you can understand these things. 15 People do not become unclean because of things that go into their bodies from outside. They become unclean because of the things that come out from their minds. 16 [You have heard my words. So do what I say.’][b]
Jesus explains to his disciples what he had taught
17 Jesus left the crowd of people and he went into a house. Then his disciples asked him to explain what he had taught.
18 Jesus said, ‘I am surprised that you too do not understand what I am saying. You should understand that food will not make people unclean. Food goes into people's bodies from outside. 19 But food does not go into people's minds. It goes into their stomachs and then it passes out of their bodies.’
When Jesus said this, he was teaching that all foods are clean.
20 Jesus then said, ‘People become unclean because of what comes out from them, not because of what goes in. 21 Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result they do wrong things. They have sex in wrong ways. They rob people. They murder people. 22 They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.
23 All these wrong things begin inside people's minds and then they come out. That is what makes them unclean.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.