Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
ג Gimel
17 Deal generously with your servant(A)
so that I might live;
then I will keep your word.
18 Open my eyes so that I may contemplate
wondrous things from your instruction.
19 I am a resident alien on earth;(B)
do not hide your commands from me.
20 I am continually overcome
with longing for your judgments.(C)
21 You rebuke the arrogant,
the ones under a curse,(D)
who wander from your commands.(E)
22 Take insult and contempt away from me,(F)
for I have kept your decrees.
23 Though princes sit together speaking against me,(G)
your servant will think about your statutes;(H)
24 your decrees are my delight
and my counselors.(I)
Miraculous Signs for Moses
4 Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear(A) to you’?”
2 The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 “Throw it on the ground,” he said. So Moses threw it on the ground, it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 The Lord told Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. 5 “This will take place,” he continued, “so that they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”(B)
6 In addition the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was diseased, resembling snow.[a](C) 7 “Put your hand back inside your cloak,” he said. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin.(D) 8 “If they will not believe you and will not respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second sign. 9 And if they don’t believe even these two signs or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the ground.”(E)
10 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”[b](F)
11 The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?(G) 12 Now go! I will help you speak[c] and I will teach you what to say.”(H)
13 Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”[d]
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, he is on his way now to meet you. He will rejoice when he sees you. 15 You will speak with him and tell him what to say.(I) I will help both you and him to speak[e] and will teach you both what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you. He will serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him. 17 And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.”(J)
The Living Stone and a Holy People
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of(A) all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.(B) 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word,[a](C) so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted(D) that the Lord is good.[b](E) 4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by[c] God— 5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood[d] to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God(F) through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
See, I lay a stone in Zion,(G)
a chosen and honored[e] cornerstone,(H)
and the one who believes in him
will never be put to shame.[f](I)
7 So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving,
8 and
They stumble because they disobey the word; they were destined(L) for this.
9 But you are a chosen race,[i][j](M) a royal priesthood,[k](N) a holy nation,[l](O) a people for his possession,[m](P) so that you may proclaim the praises[n][o](Q) of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.(R) 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy,(S) but now you have received mercy.
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