Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³⁷ [Rigidly] righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments and all expressions of Your will.

¹³⁸ You have commanded and appointed Your testimonies in righteousness and in great faithfulness.

¹³⁹ My zeal has consumed me and cut me off, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.

¹⁴⁰ Your word is very pure (tried and well refined); therefore Your servant loves it.

¹⁴¹ I am small (insignificant) and despised, but I do not forget Your precepts.

¹⁴² Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.^(A)

¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have found and taken hold on me, yet Your commandments are my delight.

¹⁴⁴ Your righteous testimonies are everlasting and Your decrees are binding to eternity; give me understanding and I shall live [give me discernment and comprehension and I shall not die].

⁵ Moreover, wine and ^[a]wealth are treacherous; the proud man [the Chaldean invader] is restless and cannot stay at home. His appetite is large like that of Sheol and [his greed] is like death and cannot be satisfied; he gathers to himself all nations and collects all people as if he owned them.

⁶ Shall not all these [victims of his greed] take up a taunt against him and in scoffing derision of him say, Woe to him who piles up that which is not his! [How long will he possess it?] And [woe to him] who loads himself with promissory notes for usury!

⁷ Shall [your debtors] not rise up suddenly who shall bite you, exacting usury of you, and those awake who will vex you [toss you to and fro and make you tremble violently]? Then you will be booty for them.

⁸ Because you [king of Babylon] have plundered many nations, all who are left of the people shall plunder you—because of men’s blood and for the violence done to the earth, to the city and all the people who live in each city.

⁹ Woe to him who obtains wicked gain for his house, [who thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high that he may be preserved from calamity and delivered from the power of evil!

¹⁰ You have devised shame to your house by cutting off and putting an end to many peoples, and you have sinned against and forfeited your own life.

¹¹ For the stone shall cry out of the wall [built in sin, to accuse you], and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it [agreeing with its charge against you].

³⁹ They retorted, Abraham is our father. Jesus said, If you were [truly] Abraham’s children, then you would do the works of Abraham [follow his example, do as Abraham did].

⁴⁰ But now [instead] you are wanting and seeking to kill Me, a Man Who has told you the truth which I have heard from God. This is not the way Abraham acted.

⁴¹ You are doing the works of your [own] father. They said to Him, We are not illegitimate children and born out of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

⁴² Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love Me and respect Me and welcome Me gladly, for I proceeded (came forth) from God [out of His very presence]. I did not even come on My own authority or of My own accord (as self-appointed); but He sent Me.

⁴³ Why do you misunderstand what I say? It is because you are unable to hear what I am saying. [You cannot bear to listen to My message; your ears are shut to My teaching.]

⁴⁴ You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false.

⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me [do not trust Me, do not rely on Me, or adhere to Me].

⁴⁶ Who of you convicts Me of wrongdoing or finds Me guilty of sin? Then if I speak truth, why do you not believe Me [trust Me, rely on, and adhere to Me]?

⁴⁷ Whoever is of God listens to God. [Those who belong to God hear the words of God.] This is the reason that you do not listen [to those words, to Me]: because you do not belong to God and are not of God or in harmony with Him.