Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
You open my ears to listen.[a]
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.(A)
7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
it is written about me in the volume of the scroll.(B)
8 I delight to do Your will, my God;(C)
Your instruction lives within me.”[b](D)
9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
see, I do not keep my mouth closed[c]—
as You know, Lord.(E)
10 I did not hide Your righteousness in my heart;
I spoke about Your faithfulness and salvation;
I did not conceal Your constant love and truth
from the great assembly.(F)
11 Lord, do not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your constant love and truth will always guard me.(G)
12 For troubles without number have surrounded me;
my sins have overtaken me; I am unable to see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my courage leaves me.(H)
13 Lord, be pleased to deliver me;
hurry to help me, Lord.(I)
Instructions for the Passover
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.(A) 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ households, one animal per household. 4 If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each person[a] will eat. 5 You must have an unblemished(B) animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. 6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.(C) 7 They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. 8 They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.(D) 9 Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling[b] water, but only roasted(E) over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. 10 Do not let any of it remain until morning;(F) you must burn up any part of it that does remain before morning. 11 Here is how you must eat it: you must be dressed for travel,[c] your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover.(G)
12 “I will pass through(H) the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.(I) 13 The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.(A) 22 Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood(B) that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, He will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.(C)
24 “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, you are to observe this ritual. 26 When your children(D) ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ 27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice(E) to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” So the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
The Conversion of the Ethiopian Official
26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.)[a](A) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch(B) and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,[b] who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem(C) 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”(D)
30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this:
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb is silent before its shearer,
so He does not open His mouth.
33 In His humiliation justice was denied Him.
Who will describe His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.(E)[c]
34 The eunuch replied to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or another person?” 35 So Philip proceeded[d] to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture.(F)
36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” [37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”][e] 38 Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord(G) carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in[f] Azotus,[g] and he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea.(H)
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