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Judgement on Judah

⁴ Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Judah,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they have rejected the law of the Lord,
   and have not kept his statutes,
but they have been led astray by the same lies
   after which their ancestors walked.
⁵ So I will send a fire on Judah,
   and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

Judgement on Israel

⁶ Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
   and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they sell the righteous for silver,
   and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷ they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
   and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
   so that my holy name is profaned;
⁸ they lay themselves down beside every altar
   on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
   wine bought with fines they imposed.

⁹ Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them,
   whose height was like the height of cedars,
   and who was as strong as oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above,
   and his roots beneath.
¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
   and led you for forty years in the wilderness,
   to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹ And I raised up some of your children to be prophets
   and some of your youths to be nazirites.^*
   Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?

says the Lord.

¹² But you made the nazirites^* drink wine,
   and commanded the prophets,
   saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’

¹³ So, I will press you down in your place,
   just as a cart presses down
   when it is full of sheaves.^*
14 Flight shall perish from the swift,
   and the strong shall not retain their strength,
   nor shall the mighty save their lives;
¹⁵ those who handle the bow shall not stand,
   and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves,
   nor shall those who ride horses save their lives;
¹⁶ and those who are stout of heart among the mighty
   shall flee away naked on that day,

says the Lord.

Psalm 7

1  O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; ♦︎
   save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me,
2  Lest they rend me like a lion and tear me in pieces ♦︎
   while there is no one to help me.
3  O Lord my God, if I have done these things: ♦︎
   if there is any wickedness in my hands,
4  If I have repaid my friend with evil, ♦︎
   or plundered my enemy without a cause,
5  Then let my enemy pursue me and overtake me, ♦︎
   trample my life to the ground,
      and lay my honour in the dust.
6  Rise up, O Lord, in your wrath;
      lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies. ♦︎
   Awaken, my God, the judgement that you have commanded.
7  Let the assembly of the peoples gather round you; ♦︎
   be seated high above them: O Lord, judge the nations.
8  Give judgement for me
      according to my righteousness, O Lord, ♦︎
   and according to the innocence that is in me.
9  Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
      but establish the righteous; ♦︎
   for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.
10  God is my shield that is over me; ♦︎
   he saves the true of heart.
11  God is a righteous judge; ♦︎
   he is provoked all day long.
12  If they will not repent, God will whet his sword; ♦︎
   he has bent his bow and made it ready.
13  He has prepared the weapons of death; ♦︎
   he makes his arrows shafts of fire.
14  Behold those who are in labour with wickedness, ♦︎
   who conceive evil and give birth to lies.
15  They dig a pit and make it deep ♦︎
   and fall into the hole that they have made for others.
16  Their mischief rebounds on their own head; ♦︎
   their violence falls on their own scalp.
17  I will give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness, ♦︎
   and I will make music to the name of the Lord Most High.

Psalm 13

1  How long will you forget me, O Lord; for ever? ♦︎
   How long will you hide your face from me?
2  How long shall I have anguish in my soul
      and grief in my heart, day after day? ♦︎
   How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3  Look upon me and answer, O Lord my God; ♦︎
   lighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4  Lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed against him,’ ♦︎
   and my foes rejoice that I have fallen.
5  But I put my trust in your steadfast love; ♦︎
   my heart will rejoice in your salvation.
6  I will sing to the Lord, ♦︎
   for he has dealt so bountifully with me.

The Old Life and the New

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. ²⁰That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Rules for the New Life

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,^* as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.^*

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

40 A leper^* came to him begging him, and kneeling^* he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ ⁴¹Moved with pity,^* Jesus^* stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ ⁴²Immediately the leprosy^* left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ ⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus^* could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.