Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
18 To the Overseer. -- By a servant of Jehovah, by David, who hath spoken to Jehovah the words of this song in the day Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he saith: -- I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
2 Jehovah [is] my rock, and my bulwark, And my deliverer, My God [is] my rock, I trust in Him: My shield, and a horn of my salvation, My high tower.
3 The `Praised One' I call Jehovah, And from my enemies I am saved.
4 Compassed me have cords of death, And streams of the worthless make me afraid.
5 Cords of Sheol have surrounded me, Before me have been snares of death.
6 In mine adversity I call Jehovah, And unto my God I cry. He heareth from His temple my voice, And My cry before Him cometh into His ears.
7 And shake and tremble doth the earth, And foundations of hills are troubled, And they shake -- because He hath wrath.
8 Gone up hath smoke by His nostrils, And fire from His mouth consumeth, Coals have been kindled by it.
9 And He inclineth the heavens, and cometh down, And thick darkness [is] under His feet.
10 And He rideth on a cherub, and doth fly, And He flieth on wings of wind.
11 He maketh darkness His secret place, Round about Him His tabernacle, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
12 From the brightness over-against Him His thick clouds have passed on, Hail and coals of fire.
13 And thunder in the heavens doth Jehovah, And the Most High giveth forth His voice, Hail and coals of fire.
14 And He sendeth His arrows and scattereth them, And much lightning, and crusheth them.
15 And seen are the streams of waters, And revealed are foundations of the earth. From Thy rebuke, O Jehovah, From the breath of the spirit of Thine anger.
16 He sendeth from above -- He taketh me, He draweth me out of many waters.
17 He delivereth me from my strong enemy, And from those hating me, For they have been stronger than I.
18 They go before me in a day of my calamity And Jehovah is for a support to me.
19 And He bringeth me forth to a large place, He draweth me out, because He delighted in me.
19 And two of the messengers come towards Sodom at even, and Lot is sitting at the gate of Sodom, and Lot seeth, and riseth to meet them, and boweth himself -- face to the earth,
2 and he saith, `Lo, I pray you, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, unto the house of your servant, and lodge, and wash your feet -- then ye have risen early and gone on your way;' and they say, `Nay, but in the broad place we do lodge.'
3 And he presseth on them greatly, and they turn aside unto him, and come in unto his house; and he maketh for them a banquet, and hath baked unleavened things; and they do eat.
4 Before they lie down, the men of the city -- men of Sodom -- have come round about against the house, from young even unto aged, all the people from the extremity;
5 and they call unto Lot and say to him, `Where [are] the men who have come in unto thee to-night? bring them out unto us, and we know them.'
6 And Lot goeth out unto them, to the opening, and the door hath shut behind him,
7 and saith, `Do not, I pray you, my brethren, do evil;
8 lo, I pray you, I have two daughters, who have not known any one; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do to them as [is] good in your eyes; only to these men do not anything, for therefore have they come in within the shadow of my roof.'
9 And they say, `Come nigh hither;' they say also, `This one hath come in to sojourn, and he certainly judgeth! now, we do evil to thee more than [to] them;' and they press against the man, against Lot greatly, and come nigh to break the door.
10 And the men put forth their hand, and bring in Lot unto them, into the house, and have shut the door;
11 and the men who [are] at the opening of the house they have smitten with blindness, from small even unto great, and they weary themselves to find the opening.
12 And the men say unto Lot, `Whom hast thou here still? son-in-law, thy sons also, and thy daughters, and all whom thou hast in the city, bring out from this place;
13 for we are destroying this place, for their cry hath been great [before] the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah doth send us to destroy it.'
14 And Lot goeth out, and speaketh unto his sons-in-law, those taking his daughters, and saith, `Rise, go out from this place, for Jehovah is destroying the city;' and he is as [one] mocking in the eyes of his sons-in-law.
15 And when the dawn hath ascended, then the messengers press upon Lot, saying, `Rise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters who are found present, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.'
16 And he lingereth, and the men lay hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, through the mercy of Jehovah unto him, and they bring him out, and cause him to rest without the city.
17 And it cometh to pass when he hath brought them out without, that he saith, `Escape for thy life; look not expectingly behind thee, nor stand thou in all the circuit; to the mountain escape, lest thou be consumed.'
18 And Lot saith unto them, `Not [so], I pray thee, my lord;
19 lo, I pray thee, thy servant hath found grace in thine eyes, and thou dost make great thy kindness which thou hast done with me by saving my life, and I am unable to escape to the mountain, lest the evil cleave [to] me, and I have died;
20 lo, I pray thee, this city [is] near to flee thither, and it [is] little; let me escape, I pray thee, thither, (is it not little?) and my soul doth live.'
21 And he saith unto him, `Lo, I have accepted thy face also for this thing, without overthrowing the city [for] which thou hast spoken;
22 haste, escape thither, for I am not able to do anything till thine entering thither;' therefore hath he calleth the name of the city Zoar.
23 The sun hath gone out on the earth, and Lot hath entered into Zoar,
24 and Jehovah hath rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens;
25 and He overthroweth these cities, and all the circuit, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which is shooting up from the ground.
26 And his wife looketh expectingly from behind him, and she is -- a pillar of salt!
27 And Abraham riseth early in the morning, unto the place where he hath stood [before] the face of Jehovah;
28 and he looketh on the face of Sodom and Gomorrah, and on all the face of the land of the circuit, and seeth, and lo, the smoke of the land went up as smoke of the furnace.
29 And it cometh to pass, in God's destroying the cities of the circuit, that God remembereth Abraham, and sendeth Lot out of the midst of the overthrow in the overthrowing of the cities in which Lot dwelt.
14 What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness [is] with God? let it not be!
15 for to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;'
16 so, then -- not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:
17 for the Writing saith to Pharaoh -- `For this very thing I did raise thee up, that I might shew in thee My power, and that My name might be declared in all the land;'
18 so, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.
19 Thou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?'
20 nay, but, O man, who art thou that art answering again to God? shall the thing formed say to Him who did form [it], Why me didst thou make thus?
21 hath not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make the one vessel to honour, and the one to dishonour?
22 And if God, willing to shew the wrath and to make known His power, did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of kindness, that He before prepared for glory, whom also He did call -- us --
24 not only out of Jews, but also out of nations,
25 as also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what [is] not My people -- My people; and her not beloved -- Beloved,
26 and it shall be -- in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God.'
27 And Isaiah doth cry concerning Israel, `If the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved;
28 for a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.
29 and according as Isaiah saith before, `Except the Lord of Sabaoth did leave to us a seed, as Sodom we had become, and as Gomorrah we had been made like.'