Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
ת (Tav)
169 Listen to my cry for help,[a] O Lord.
Give me insight by your word.
170 Listen to my appeal for mercy.[b]
Deliver me, as you promised.[c]
171 May praise flow freely from my lips,
for you teach me your statutes.
172 May my tongue sing about your instructions,[d]
for all your commands are just.
173 May your hand help me,
for I choose to obey[e] your precepts.
174 I long for your deliverance, O Lord;
I find delight in your law.
175 May I[f] live and praise you.
May your regulations help me.[g]
176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep.[h]
Come looking for your servant,
for I do not forget your commands.
13 1 Just then[a] a prophet[b] arrived from Judah with[c] the Lord’s message for Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice. 2 He cried out against the altar with the Lord’s message, “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord has said, ‘Look, a son named Josiah will be born to the Davidic dynasty. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifices on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”[d] 3 That day he had also given a sign, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has declared: The altar will split open and the ashes[e] on it will pour out.” 4 When the king heard the prophet’s message that he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam took his hand from the altar and pointed it[f] saying, “Seize him!” Then the hand that he had pointed at him stiffened up,[g] and he could not pull it back. 5 Meanwhile the altar split open, and the ashes[h] poured from the altar in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had given with the Lord’s message. 6 The king responded to[i] the prophet, “Seek the favor of[j] the Lord your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored.” So the prophet sought the Lord’s favor and the king’s hand was restored as it was at first. 7 The king then said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat, so that I may give you a gift.”[k] 8 But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions,[l] I would not go with you. I am not allowed to eat food or drink water in this place. 9 For this is how I was commanded in the Lord’s message, ‘Eat no food. Drink no water. And do not return by the way you came.’” 10 So he started back on another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel.
The Condemnation of the World
9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, 10 just as it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one,
11 there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.”[a]
13 “Their throats are open graves,[b]
they deceive with their tongues,
the poison of asps is under their lips.”[c]
14 “Their mouths are[d] full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”[f]
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under[h] the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no one is declared righteous before him[i] by the works of the law,[j] for through the law comes[k] the knowledge of sin.
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