Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 124

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of David.

¹ If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side—now may Israel say—

² If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side when men rose up against us,

³ Then they would have quickly swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴ Then the waters would have overwhelmed us and swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;

⁵ Then the proud waters would have gone over us.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth!

⁷ We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

9 And God pronounced a blessing upon Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

² And the fear of you and the dread and terror of you shall be upon every beast of the land, every bird of the air, all that creeps upon the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are delivered into your hand.

³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green vegetables and plants, I give you everything.

⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with the life of it, which is its blood.

⁵ And surely for your lifeblood I will require an accounting; from every beast I will require it; and from man, from every man [who spills another’s lifeblood] I will require a reckoning.

⁶ Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God He made man.

⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply on it.

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

⁹ Behold, I establish My covenant or pledge with you and with your descendants after you

¹⁰ And with every living creature that is with you—whether the birds, the livestock, or the wild beasts of the earth along with you, as many as came out of the ark—every animal of the earth.

¹¹ I will establish My covenant or pledge with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth and make it corrupt.

¹² And God said, This is the token of the covenant (solemn pledge) which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:

¹³ I set My bow [rainbow] in the cloud, and it shall be a token or sign of a covenant or solemn pledge between Me and the earth.

¹⁴ And it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow [rainbow] is seen in the clouds,

¹⁵ I will [earnestly] remember My covenant or solemn pledge which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy and make all flesh corrupt.

¹⁶ When the bow [rainbow] is in the clouds and I look upon it, I will [earnestly] remember the everlasting covenant or pledge between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

¹⁷ And God said to Noah, This [rainbow] is the token or sign of the covenant or solemn pledge which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the earth.

³² And what shall I say further? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,^(A)

³³ Who by [the help of] faith subdued kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promised blessings, closed the mouths of lions,^(B)

³⁴ Extinguished the power of raging fire, escaped the devourings of the sword, out of frailty and weakness won strength and became stalwart, even mighty and resistless in battle, routing alien hosts.^(C)

³⁵ [Some] women received again their dead by a resurrection. Others were tortured ^[a]to death with clubs, refusing to accept release [offered on the terms of denying their faith], so that they might be resurrected to a better life.^(D)

³⁶ Others had to suffer the trial of mocking and scourging and even chains and imprisonment.

³⁷ They were stoned to death; they were lured with tempting offers [to renounce their faith]; they were sawn asunder; they were slaughtered by the sword; [while they were alive] they had to go about wrapped in the skins of sheep and goats, utterly destitute, oppressed, cruelly treated—

³⁸ [Men] of whom the world was not worthy—roaming over the desolate places and the mountains, and [living] in caves and caverns and holes of the earth.

³⁹ And all of these, though they won divine approval by [means of] their faith, did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised,

⁴⁰ Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us [before we could join them].