Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

146 Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! ² I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.

³ Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail; ⁴ for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. ⁵ But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— ⁶ the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise, ⁷ who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners ⁸ and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men. ⁹ He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,^[a] your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

36 ^1-2 Then the heads of the subclan of Gilead (of the clan of Machir, of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the sons of Joseph) came to Moses and the leaders of Israel with a petition: “The Lord instructed you to divide the land by lot among the people of Israel,” they reminded Moses, “and to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. ³ But if they marry into another tribe, their land will go with them to the tribe into which they marry. In this way the total area of our tribe will be reduced ⁴ and will not be returned at the Year of Jubilee.”

⁵ Then Moses replied publicly, giving them these instructions from the Lord: “The men of the tribe of Joseph have a proper complaint. ⁶ This is what the Lord has further commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them be married to anyone they like, so long as it is within their own tribe. ⁷ In this way none of the land of the tribe will shift to any other tribe, for the inheritance of every tribe is to remain permanently as it was first allotted. ⁸ The girls throughout the tribes of Israel who are heiresses must marry within their own tribe, so that their land won’t leave the tribe. ⁹ In this way no inheritance shall move from one tribe to another.’”

¹⁰ The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses. ^11-12 These girls, Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, were married to men in their own tribe of Manasseh (son of Joseph); so their inheritance remained in their tribe.

¹³ These are the commandments and ordinances that the Lord gave to the people of Israel through Moses, while they were camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

⁶ When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him. ⁷ Even if we were good, we really wouldn’t expect anyone to die for us, though, of course, that might be barely possible. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since by his blood he did all this for us as sinners, how much more will he do for us now that he has declared us not guilty? Now he will save us from all of God’s wrath to come. ¹⁰ And since, when we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of his Son, what blessings he must have for us now that we are his friends and he is living within us!

¹¹ Now we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying for our sins—making us friends of God.