Psalm 128

A song of ascents.

Blessed are all who fear the Lord,(A)
    who walk in obedience to him.(B)
You will eat the fruit of your labor;(C)
    blessings and prosperity(D) will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine(E)
    within your house;
your children(F) will be like olive shoots(G)
    around your table.
Yes, this will be the blessing(H)
    for the man who fears the Lord.(I)

May the Lord bless you from Zion;(J)
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem(K)
    all the days of your life.
May you live to see your children’s children—(L)
    peace be on Israel.(M)

12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites(A) over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.(B)
13 So the sun stood still,(C)
    and the moon stopped,
    till the nation avenged itself on[a] its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.(D)

The sun stopped(E) in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting(F) for Israel!

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Footnotes

  1. Joshua 10:13 Or nation triumphed over

That Which Defiles(A)

15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”(B)

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a](C) and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b](D) But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.(E)[c](F)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16
  2. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20:9
  3. Matthew 15:9 Isaiah 29:13

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