Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The King Rules

110 The Lord says to my Lord, “Sit at My right side, for those who hate You will be a place to rest Your feet.” ² The Lord will send out Your strength from Zion, saying, “Rule in front of those who hate You.” ³ Your people will be willing to help in the day of Your power. Your young men will be dressed in holy clothes. They will come to You like water on the grass in the early morning.

⁴ The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a Religious Leader forever, in the same way as Melchizedek.” ⁵ The Lord is at Your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of His anger. ⁶ He will say who is guilty or not among the nations. He will fill them with dead bodies. He will crush the leaders of many lands. ⁷ He will drink from the river on the way. And so He will lift up His head.

¹¹ One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw how hard they worked. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people, ¹² so he looked this way and that way. He did not see anyone, so he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He said to the man who did the wrong, “Why are you hitting your neighbor?” ¹⁴ But the man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge among us? Do you plan to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid. He thought, “For sure the thing I have done is known.”

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. He sat down there by a well. ¹⁶ Now the religious leader of Midian had seven daughters. They came to get water, and filled the barrels used to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ The shepherds came and tried to make them go away. But Moses stood up and helped them. He gave water to their flock. ¹⁸ When they came to their father Reuel, he said, “Why have you returned so soon today?” ¹⁹ They answered, “An Egyptian saved us from the shepherds. He even got the water for us and gave water to the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why have you left the man? Ask him to have something to eat with us.” ²¹ Moses was willing to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. ²² She gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Gershom. For he said, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.”

²³ Now after a long time, the king of Egypt died. The people of Israel were sad in their spirit because of being servants. They cried for help. And because of their hard work their cry went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their crying and remembered His agreement with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the people of Israel and He cared about them.

²⁷ Because Moses had faith, he left Egypt. He was not afraid of the king’s anger. Moses did not turn from the right way but kept seeing God in front of him. ²⁸ Because Moses had faith, he told all the Jews to put blood over their doors. Then the angel of death would pass over their houses and not kill their oldest sons.