6 o“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 pFor as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
1 fOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 gLet Israel say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
19 aOpen to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
bthe righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that cyou have answered me
uand have become my salvation.
22 dThe stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.1
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 eBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We fbless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God,
and he has made ghis light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to hthe horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will iextol you.
29 jOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Warning Against Apostasy
11 About this we have much to say, and it is chard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again dthe basic principles of the oracles of God. You need emilk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is fa child. 14 But solid food is for gthe mature, for those who have their powers hof discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
1 Therefore ilet us leave jthe elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance kfrom dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of linstruction about washings,1 mthe laying on of hands, nthe resurrection of the dead, and oeternal judgment. 3 And this we will do pif God permits.
The Triumphal Entry
1 qNow when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to rthe Mount of Olives, then Jesus ssent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place tto fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 u“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
vhumble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt,1 the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd wspread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, x“Hosanna to ythe Son of David! zBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna ain the highest!” 10 And bwhen he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is cthe prophet Jesus, dfrom Nazareth of Galilee.”
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 eAnd Jesus entered the temple2 and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of fthe money-changers and the seats of those who sold gpigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, h‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but iyou make it a den of robbers.”
14 jAnd the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 kBut when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, x“Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; lhave you never read,
m“‘Out of the mouth of ninfants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”
17 And oleaving them, he pwent out of the city to qBethany and lodged there.
