Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

GIMEL

¹⁷ Be beneficial to Your servant, that I may live and keep Your Word.

¹⁸ Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of Your Law.

¹⁹ I am a stranger upon Earth. Do not hide Your Commandments from me.

²⁰ My heart breaks for the desire of Your Judgments always.

²¹ You have rebuked the proud. Cursed are those who stray from Your Commandments.

²² Remove from me shame and contempt, for I have kept Your Testimonies.

²³ Princes also sat and spoke against me, but Your servant meditated on Your Statutes.

²⁴ Also Your Testimonies are my delight and my counselors.

4 Then Moses answered, and said, “But lo, they will neither believe me nor listen to my voice. For they will say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

² And the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he answered, “A rod.”

³ Then he said, “Cast it on the ground.” So, he cast it on the ground; and it was turned into a serpent. And Moses fled from it.

⁴ Again the LORD said to Moses, “Put forth your hand and take it by the tail.” Then he put forth his hand and caught it; and it was turned into a rod in his hand.

⁵ “Do this, so that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you.”

⁶ And furthermore, the LORD said to him, “Now, thrust your hand into your bosom.” And he thrust his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out again, behold his hand was leprous as snow.

⁷ Moreover, He said, “Put your hand into your bosom again.” So, he put his hand into his bosom again and pulled it out of his bosom. And behold, it was turned back as his other flesh.

⁸ “So shall it be, if they will not believe you or obey the voice of the first sign, they shall still believe the voice of the second sign.

⁹ “But, if they will still not believe these two signs or obey your voice, then you shall take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land. So, the water which you shall take out of the river shall be turned to blood upon the dry land.”

¹⁰ But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant. But I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

¹¹ Then the LORD said to him, “Who has given the mouth to man? Or, Who has made the dumb or the deaf or him who sees or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?

¹² “Therefore, go now; and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you shall say.”

¹³ But he said, “Oh, my LORD. Please send by the hand of someone else.”

¹⁴ Then the LORD was very angry with Moses, and said, “Do not I know Aaron, your brother, the Levite; that he himself shall speak? For lo, he also comes forth to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵ “Therefore, you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you ought to do.

¹⁶ “And he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he shall be, indeed he shall be as your mouth. And you shall be to him as God.

¹⁷ “Moreover, you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do miracles.”

2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all blasphemy,

² desire the sincere milk of the Word, as newborn babies; so that by it you may grow

³ (if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is bountiful),

⁴ coming to Him as to a living stone, indeed rejected by man but chosen by God and precious.

⁵ You also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I put a Chief Cornerstone in Zion, elect and precious. And the one who believes in Him shall not be put to shame.”

⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, “the Stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the Chief Cornerstone,”

⁸ and, “a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense,” to those who stumble at the Word, being disobedient. To this they were also appointed.

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are a Possession; so that you would show forth the virtues of the One Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹⁰ In the past, you were not a people, yet are now the people of God, who in the past were not under mercy, but now have obtained mercy.