Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 Blessed is the (A)nation whose God is Yahweh,
The people whom He has (B)chosen for His own inheritance.
13 Yahweh (C)looks from heaven;
He (D)sees all the sons of men;
14 From (E)the place of His habitation He gazes
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 He who (F)forms [a]the hearts of them all,
He who (G)understands all their works.
16 (H)The king is not saved by a mighty army;
A warrior is not delivered by great strength.
17 A (I)horse is a false hope for salvation;
Nor does it provide escape to anyone by its great strength.
18 Behold, (J)the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear Him,
On those who (K)wait for His lovingkindness,
19 To (L)deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive (M)in famine.
20 Our soul (N)is patient for Yahweh;
He is our (O)help and our shield.
21 For our (P)heart is glad in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O Yahweh, be upon us,
As we wait for You.
The Vanity of Life
6 There is an (A)evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent [a]among men— 2 a man to whom God (B)gives riches and wealth and honor so that his soul (C)lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God does not empower him to eat from them, for a foreigner eats from them. This is [b]vanity and a sickening evil. 3 If a man becomes the father of one hundred children and lives many years, however many the days of his years may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even have a proper (D)burial, then I say, “Better (E)the miscarriage than he, 4 for that one comes in vanity and goes into darkness; and that one’s name is covered in darkness. 5 Indeed, that one never sees the sun and never knows anything; [c]that one has more rest than he. 6 Even if the other man lives one thousand years twice and does not see good things—(F)do not all go to the same place?”
Stephen’s Defense
7 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, “Hear me, (A)brothers and fathers! (B)The God of glory (C)appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in [a]Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘(D)Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ 4 (E)Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in [b]Haran. (F)From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. 5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and (G)He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child. 6 But (H)God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would [c]be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 ‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and (I)after that they will come out and [d]serve Me in this place.’ 8 And He (J)gave him [e]the covenant of circumcision; and so (K)Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and (L)Isaac was the father of Jacob, and (M)Jacob of the twelve (N)patriarchs.
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