The Parable of the Lost Coin. 8“Or what woman having ten coins* and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? 9And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ 10In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The Stubborn and Rebellious Son. 18g If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not listen to them even though they discipline him,h 19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders at the gate* of his home city, 20where they shall say to the elders of the city, “This son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”i 21Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.j
1Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.a 2b He also made the molten sea. It was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. 3Under the brim a ring of figures of oxen* encircled it for ten cubits, all the way around the compass of the sea; there were two rows of oxen cast in one mold with the sea. 4This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center; upon them was set the sea. 5It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.*
6Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. In these the victims for the burnt offerings were washed; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.c
7He made the menorahs of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.d 8He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.e 9He made the court of the priests and the great courtyardf and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he covered with bronze. 10The sea he placed off to the southeast from the south side of the house.g
11h When Huram had made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he finished all his work for King Solomon in the house of God: 12two columns; two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; and two pieces of netting covering the two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; 13four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of netting that covered the two nodes of the capitals on top of the columns. 14He made the stands, and the basins on the stands; 15one sea, and the twelve oxen under it; 16pots, shovels, forks, and all the articles Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD; they were of burnished bronze. 17The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zeredah, in thick clay molds. 18Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.
19Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay, 20the menorahs and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn as prescribed before the inner sanctuary, 21flowers, lamps, and gold tongs (this was of purest gold), 22snuffers, bowls, cups, and firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave of the temple, were of gold.
1A psalm. A sabbath song.
2It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,a
3To proclaim your love at daybreak,
your faithfulness in the night,
4With the ten-stringed harp,
with melody upon the lyre.b
5For you make me jubilant, LORD, by your deeds;
at the works of your hands I shout for joy.
6How great are your works, LORD!c
How profound your designs!
22Yet you did not call upon me, Jacob,*
for you grew weary of me, Israel.
23You did not bring me sheep for your burnt offerings,
nor honor me with your sacrifices.
I did not exact from you the service of offerings,
nor weary you for frankincense.f
24You did not buy me sweet cane,*
nor did you fill me with the fat of your sacrifices;
Instead, you burdened me with your sins,
wearied me with your crimes.
25It is I, I, who wipe out,
for my own sake, your offenses;
your sins I remember no more.
26Would you have me remember, have us come to trial?
Speak up, prove your innocence!
27Your first father* sinned;
your spokesmen rebelled against me
28Till I repudiated the holy princes,
put Jacob under the ban,
exposed Israel to scorn.
Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus. 22Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:*
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. 23For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’* What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,h 25nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26He made from one* the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, 27so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.i 28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’* as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.j 30God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”k
32When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” 33And so Paul left them. 34But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
One Body, Many Parts.* 12As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.g 13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.h
14Now the body is not a single part, but many. 15If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. 16Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” 22Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, 23and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, 24whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, 25so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. 26If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep.a 1* The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, 2but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”b 3So to them he addressed this parable. 4c “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost oned until he finds it?e 5And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy 6and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.f