Psalm 25:15–22

¹⁵My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
¹⁶Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
¹⁷The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
¹⁸Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
¹⁹Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
²⁰Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
²¹May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
²²Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.

Old Testament Reading Job 16

¹“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
²Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
³“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there who will put up security for me?
⁴Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
⁶“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
¹²They make night into day;
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
¹³If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”

New Testament Reading John 7:14–31

¹⁴About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. ¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” ¹⁶So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. ¹⁸The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. ¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” ²⁰The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” ²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel at it. ²²Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ²³If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? ²⁴Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? ²⁶And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” ²⁸So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. ²⁹I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” ³⁰So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”