Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the director: A praise song of David.
65 God in Zion, we praise you
and give you what we promised.
2 Anyone can come to you,
and you will listen to their prayers.
3 When our sins become too heavy for us,
you wipe them away.
4 Oh, how wonderful it is to be the people you chose
to come and stay in your Temple.
And we are so happy to have the wonderful things
that are in your Temple, your holy palace.
5 God, you answer our prayers and do what is right.
You do amazing things to save us.
People all over the world know they can trust in you,
even those who live across the sea.
6 You made the mountains.
We see your power all around us.
7 You can calm the roughest seas
or the nations raging around us.
8 People all around the world are amazed at the wonderful things you do.
You make all people, east and west, sing with joy.
9 You take care of the land.
You water it and make it fertile.
Your streams are always filled with water.
That’s how you make the crops grow.
10 You pour rain on the plowed fields;
you soak the fields with water.
You make the ground soft with rain,
and you make the young plants grow.
11 You start the new year with a good harvest.
You end the year with many crops.[a]
12 The desert and hills are covered with grass.
13 The pastures are covered with sheep.
The valleys are filled with grain.
Everything is singing and shouting for joy.
The Hail
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up in the morning and go to Pharaoh. Tell him that the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go to worship me! 14 This time, I will use my full power against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know that there is no god in the world like me. 15 I could use my power and cause a disease that would wipe you and your people off the earth. 16 But I have put you here for a reason. I have put you here so that I could show you my power. Then people all over the world will learn about me! 17 You are still against my people. You are not letting them go free. 18 So at this time tomorrow, I will cause a very bad hailstorm. There has never been a hailstorm like this in Egypt, not since Egypt became a nation. 19 Now, you must put your animals in a safe place. Everything you own that is now in the fields must be put in a safe place. Any person or animal that remains in the fields will be killed. The hail will fall on everything that is not gathered into your houses.’”
20 Some of Pharaoh’s officials paid attention to the Lord’s message. They quickly put all of their animals and slaves into houses. 21 But other people ignored the Lord’s message and lost all their slaves and animals that were in the fields.
22 The Lord told Moses, “Raise your hand into the air and the hail will start falling all over Egypt. The hail will fall on all the people, animals, and plants in all the fields of Egypt.”
23 So Moses raised his walking stick into the air, and the Lord sent hail with thunder and lightning down on the earth. The Lord caused hail to fall all over Egypt. 24 The hail was falling, and lightning was flashing all through it. It was the worst hailstorm that had ever hit Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 The storm destroyed everything in the fields in Egypt. The hail destroyed people, animals, and plants. The hail also broke all the trees in the fields. 26 The only place that did not get hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.
27 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “This time I have sinned. The Lord is right, and I and my people are wrong. 28 We have had enough of this hail and thunder! Ask the Lord to stop the storm, and I will let you go. You don’t have to stay here.”
29 Moses told Pharaoh, “When I leave the city, I will lift my hands in prayer to the Lord, and the thunder and hail will stop. Then you will know that the Lord is in this land. 30 But I know that you and your officials don’t really fear and respect the Lord yet.”
31 The flax had already developed its seeds, and the barley was already blooming. So these plants were destroyed. 32 But wheat and spelt ripen later than the other grains, so these plants were not destroyed.
33 Moses left Pharaoh and went outside the city. He lifted his hands in prayer to the Lord. And the thunder and hail stopped, and then even the rain stopped.
34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he again did wrong. He and his officials became stubborn again. 35 Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go free, just as the Lord had said through Moses.
The Ship Is Destroyed
39 When daylight came, the sailors saw land, but they did not know what land it was. They saw a bay with a beach and wanted to sail the ship to the beach if they could. 40 So they cut the ropes to the anchors and left the anchors in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that were holding the rudders. Then they raised the front sail into the wind and sailed toward the beach. 41 But the ship hit a sandbank. The front of the ship stuck there and could not move. Then the big waves began to break the back of the ship to pieces.
42 The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so that none of the prisoners could swim away and escape. 43 But Julius the army officer wanted to let Paul live. So he did not allow the soldiers to kill the prisoners. He told the people who could swim to jump into the water and swim to land. 44 The others used wooden boards or pieces of the ship. And this is how all the people went safely to land.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International