Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
9 O God, I will sing a new song to you.
I will sing a psalm to you on a ten-stringed harp.
10 You are the one who gives victory to kings.
You are the one who snatches your servant David
away from a deadly sword.
11 Snatch me, and rescue me from foreigners’ hands.
Their mouths speak lies.
Their right hands take false pledges.
12 May our sons be like full-grown, young plants.
May our daughters be like stately columns
that adorn the corners of a palace.
13 May our barns be filled with all kinds of crops.
May our sheep give birth to thousands of lambs,
tens of thousands in our fields.
14 May our cattle have many calves.
May no one break in, and may no one be dragged out.
May there be no cries of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed are the people who have these blessings!
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
The Young Woman’s Love for Her Beloved
[ THE CHORUS OF YOUNG WOMEN ]
5 Who is this young woman coming from the wilderness
with her arm around her beloved?
[ BRIDE ]
Under the apple tree I woke you up.
There your mother went into labor with you.
There she went into labor
and gave birth to you!
6 Wear me as a signet ring on your heart,
as a ring on your hand.
Love is as overpowering as death.
Devotion is as unyielding as the grave.
Love’s flames are flames of fire,
flames that come from the Lord.
7 Raging water cannot extinguish love,
and rivers will never wash it away.
If a man exchanged all his family’s wealth for love,
people would utterly despise him.
9 He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10 For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12 he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13 Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! 15 Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 16 Let the person who has ears listen!” [a]
17 When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.
18 Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? 19 It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus declared all foods acceptable.) 20 He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21 Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. 23 All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”
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