Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song of degrees. Of David.

124 If it had not been Jehovah who was for us—oh let Israel say—

² If it had not been Jehovah who was for us, when men rose up against us,

³ Then they had swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

⁴ Then the waters had overwhelmed us, a torrent had gone over our soul;

⁵ Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

⁶ Blessed be Jehovah, who gave us not up a prey to their teeth!

⁷ Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of Jehovah, the maker of heavens and earth.

9 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

² And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every animal of the earth, and upon all fowl of the heavens: upon all that moveth [on] the ground; and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered.

³ Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you: as the green herb I give you everything.

⁴ Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat.

⁵ And indeed your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require: at the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of each [the blood] of his brother, will I require the life of Man.

⁶ Whoso sheddeth Man's blood, by Man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he hath made Man.

⁷ And ye, be fruitful and multiply: swarm on the earth, and multiply on it.

⁸ And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

⁹ And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

¹⁰ and with every living soul which is with you, fowl as well as cattle, and all the animals of the earth with you, of all that has gone out of the ark—every animal of the earth.

¹¹ And I establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, and henceforth there shall be no flood to destroy the earth.

¹² And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I set between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations:

¹³ I set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴ And it shall come to pass when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,

¹⁵ and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall not henceforth become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶ And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.

¹⁷ And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

³² And what more do I say? For the time would fail me telling of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David and Samuel, and of the prophets:

³³ who by faith overcame kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped lions' mouths,

³⁴ quenched [the] power of fire, escaped [the] edge of the sword, became strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, made [the] armies of strangers give way.

³⁵ Women received their dead again by resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted deliverance, that they might get a better resurrection;

³⁶ and others underwent trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, and of bonds and imprisonment.

³⁷ They were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, died by the death of the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, evil treated,

³⁸ (of whom the world was not worthy,) wandering in deserts and mountains, and [in] dens and caverns of the earth.

³⁹ And these all, having obtained witness through faith, did not receive the promise,

⁴⁰ God having foreseen some better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us.