Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God’s Favor to Earth and Man
65 All will be quiet before You, and praise belongs to You, O God, in Zion. And our promise to You will be kept. 2 O You Who hears prayer, to You all men come. 3 My sins are strong against me. But You forgive our sins. 4 Happy is the man You choose and bring near to You to live in Your holy place. We will be filled with the good things of Your house, Your holy house.
5 O God Who saves us, You answer us in the way that is right and good by Your great works that make people stand in fear. You are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6 You have built the mountains by Your strength. You are dressed with power. 7 You quiet the storm of the seas, the sound of their waves, and the noise of the people. 8 Those who live far away are afraid of Your great works. You make morning and evening call out for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it. You make it very rich. The river of God is full of water. You give the people grain when You have made the earth ready. 10 You water where the plow has been used. You cover the seeds with earth. You make it soft with rain. And You make the plants grow well. 11 You crown the year with Your good gifts. There is more than enough where You have been. 12 The fields of the desert are filled with water. And the hills dress themselves with joy. 13 The grass lands are covered with birds. And the valleys are covered with grain. They call out for joy and sing.
Large Hail and Fire
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and stand in front of Pharaoh and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says this: “Let My people go, so they may worship Me. 14 For this time I will send all My troubles on you and your servants and your people. So you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. 15 For by now I could have put out My hand and hit you and your people with much trouble and great suffering. You would then have been destroyed from the earth. 16 But I have let you live so you could see My power and so My name may be honored through all the earth. 17 But you still use your power against My people by not letting them go. 18 About this time tomorrow I will send a very heavy hail such as has never been seen in Egypt from the day it began until now. 19 Have your cattle and whatever you have in the field brought to a safe place. For the hail will come down upon every man and animal that is in the field and is not brought home. And they will die.”’” 20 Any of the people of Egypt who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and animals run to the houses. 21 But he who did not listen to the word of the Lord left his servants and animals in the field.
22 The Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand toward the sky and hail will fall on all the land of Egypt. Hail will fall on man and animal and every plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.” 23 Moses put out his special stick toward the sky. Then the Lord sent thunder and hail. And lightning struck the ground. The Lord poured hail on the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail and lightning striking through the hail without stopping. It was very bad, worse than had ever been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail hit all that was in the field through all the land of Egypt, both man and animal. The hail hit every plant of the field and broke down every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen where the people of Israel were, there was no hail.
27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. He said to them, “I have sinned this time. The Lord is right. I and my people are guilty. 28 Pray to the Lord. For there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. And I will let you go. You will stay here no longer.” 29 Moses said to him, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will stop. There will be no more hail. Then you may know that the earth is the Lord’s. 30 But I know that you and your servants do not yet fear the Lord God.” 31 The flax and the barley were destroyed. For these plants had just begun to grow. 32 But the other grains were not destroyed, because they grow later.
33 So Moses left the city and Pharaoh. He spread out his hands to the Lord. And the thunder and the hail stopped. The rain no longer poured on the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again. He and his servants made their hearts hard. 35 Pharaoh’s heart was not changed. He did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had said by Moses.
39 In the morning they could not see what land they were near. Later they could see a river. Near its mouth there was a shore of sand. They planned to run the ship onto the sand if they could. 40 The anchors were cut loose and left in the sea. Then they took the ropes off that were holding the rudder. When they put up the sail, the wind took the ship toward shore. 41 But the ship hit a place where the water was low. It was made from where two seas meet. The front of the ship did not move but the back part broke in pieces by the high waves.
42 The soldiers planned to kill the men in chains. They were afraid they would swim to shore and get away, 43 but the captain wanted to save Paul. He kept them from their plan. Calling out to those who could swim, he told them to jump into the sea and swim to shore. 44 The others should use wood or anything from the ship. In this way, they all got to shore without getting hurt.
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