Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
GIMEL ג
17 Do good to Your servant
that I may live and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, so I may behold
wonders from Your Torah.
19 I am a temporary dweller on earth—
do not hide Your mitzvot from me.
20 My soul is crushed with longing
for Your judgments at all times.
21 You rebuke the proud, who are cursed,
who wander from Your mitzvot.
22 Take scorn and contempt away from me,
for I have kept Your testimonies.
23 Though princes sit and talk against me,
Your servant meditates on Your decrees.
24 For Your testimonies are my delight—
they are also my counselors.
Objections and Excuses
4 Then Moses said, “But look, they will not believe me or listen to my voice. They will say, ‘Adonai has not appeared to you.’”
2 So Adonai said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he said.
3 Then He said, “Cast it on the ground.” When he cast it to the ground, it became a serpent, so Moses fled from before it. 4 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail.” So he put out his hand, laid hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5 “This is so that they may believe Adonai, the God of their fathers—the God of Abra-ham, Isaac and Jacob—has appeared to you.”
6 Adonai also said to him, “Now put your hand within your cloak.” So he put his hand inside, and when he took it out, his hand had tza-ra’at—white as snow. 7 Then He said, “Put your hand back into your cloak.” So he put his hand back in, and when he took it out it was restored again as the rest of his skin.
8 Then He said, “If they do not believe you, or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the message of the latter sign. 9 But if they do not believe even these two signs nor listen to your voice, you are to take the water of the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the ground.”
10 But Moses said to Adonai, “Adonai, I am not a man of words—not yesterday, nor the day before, nor since You have spoken to Your servant—because I have a slow mouth and a heavy tongue.”
11 So Adonai said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes a man mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, Adonai? 12 Now go! I will be with your mouth and teach you what to say.”
13 But he said, “Please, please, send it by another hand.”
14 Then the anger of Adonai was kindled against Moses, so He said, “In fact, Aaron the Levite is your brother. I know that he can speak well. Moreover, he is on his way to meet you! When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his, and teach you what to do. 16 He will be your spokesman to the people, so that he may act as a mouthpiece for you, and it will be as if you were as God for him. 17 Now then, you must take this staff in your hand to do the signs.”
Living Stones
2 So get rid of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all lashon ha-ra. 2 As newborn babes, long for pure spiritual milk,[a] so that by it you may grow toward salvation— 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. [b] 4 As you come to Him, a living stone[c] rejected by men but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house—a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua. 6 For it says in Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone,
a chosen, precious cornerstone.
Whoever trusts in Him
will never be put to shame.”[d]
7 Now the value is for you who keep trusting; but for those who do not trust,
“The stone which the builders rejected—
this One has become the chief cornerstone,”[e]
8 and
“a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”[f]
They stumble because they are disobeying the word—to this they were also appointed. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.[g]
10 Once you were “not a people,”
but now you are “God’s people.”
You were shown “no mercy,”
but now you have been shown “mercy.”[h]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.