Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹³⁷ O Lord, you are just and your punishments are fair. ¹³⁸ Your demands are just and right. ¹³⁹ I am indignant and angry because of the way my enemies have disregarded your laws. ¹⁴⁰ I have thoroughly tested your promises, and that is why I love them so much. ¹⁴¹ I am worthless and despised, but I don’t despise your laws.

¹⁴² Your justice is eternal for your laws are perfectly fair. ¹⁴³ In my distress and anguish your commandments comfort me. ¹⁴⁴ Your laws are always fair; help me to understand them, and I shall live.

⁵ What’s more, these arrogant Chaldeans are betrayed by all their wine, for it is treacherous. In their greed they have collected many nations, but like death and hell, they are never satisfied. ⁶ The time is coming when all their captives will taunt them, saying: ‘You robbers! At last justice has caught up with you! Now you will get your just deserts for your oppression and extortion!’

⁷ “Suddenly your debtors will rise up in anger and turn on you and take all you have, while you stand trembling and helpless. ⁸ You have ruined many nations; now they will ruin you. You murderers! You have filled the countryside with lawlessness and all the cities too.

⁹ “Woe to you for getting rich by evil means, attempting to live beyond the reach of danger. ¹⁰ By the murders you commit, you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives. ¹¹ The very stones in the walls of your homes cry out against you, and the beams in the ceilings echo what they say.

³⁹ “Our father is Abraham,” they declared.

“No!” Jesus replied, “for if he were, you would follow his good example. ⁴⁰ But instead you are trying to kill me—and all because I told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham wouldn’t do a thing like that! ⁴¹ No, you are obeying your real father when you act that way.”

They replied, “We were not born out of wedlock—our true Father is God himself.”

⁴² Jesus told them, “If that were so, then you would love me, for I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you are prevented from doing so! ⁴⁴ For you are the children of your father the devil and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and a hater of truth—there is not an iota of truth in him. When he lies, it is perfectly normal; for he is the father of liars. ⁴⁵ And so when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe it!

⁴⁶ “Which of you can truthfully accuse me of one single sin? No one!^[a] And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to the words of God. Since you don’t, it proves you aren’t his children.”