Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 31

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me never be put to shame or [have my hope in You] disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!

² Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily! Be my Rock of refuge, a strong Fortress to save me!

³ Yes, You are my Rock and my Fortress; therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.

⁴ Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my Strength and my Stronghold.

⁵ Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth and faithfulness.^(A)

¹⁵ My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me.

¹⁶ Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me for Your mercy’s sake and in Your loving-kindness.

3 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back or west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of God.

² The ^[a]Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed.

³ And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

⁴ And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.

⁵ God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

⁶ Also He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters and oppressors; for I know their sorrows and sufferings and trials.

⁸ And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand and power of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a land good and large, a land flowing with milk and honey [a land of plenty]—to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

⁹ Now behold, the cry of the Israelites has come to Me, and I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.

¹⁰ Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

¹¹ And Moses said to God, ^[b]Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

¹² God said, I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain [Horeb, or Sinai].

7 And the high priest asked [Stephen], Are these charges true?

² And he answered, Brethren and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before he [went to] live in Haran,^(A)

³ And He said to him, Leave your own country and your relatives and come into the land (region) that I will point out to you.^(B)

⁴ So then he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, [God] transferred him to this country in which you are now dwelling.^(C)

⁵ Yet He gave him no inheritable property in it, [no] not even enough ground to set his foot on; but He promised that He would give it to Him for a ^[a]permanent possession and to his descendants after him, even though [as yet] he had no child.^(D)

⁶ And this is [in effect] what God told him: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a land belonging to other people, who would bring them into bondage and ill-treat them 400 years.

⁷ But I will judge the nation to whom they will be slaves, said God, and after that they will escape and come forth and worship Me in this [very] place.^(E)

⁸ And [God] made with Abraham a covenant (an agreement to be religiously observed) ^[b]of which circumcision was the seal. And under these circumstances [Abraham] became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [did so] when he became the father of Jacob, and Jacob [when each of his sons was born], the twelve patriarchs.^(F)

⁹ And the patriarchs [Jacob’s sons], boiling with envy and hatred and anger, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him,^(G)

¹⁰ And delivered him from all his distressing afflictions and won him goodwill and favor and wisdom and understanding in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.^(H)

¹¹ Then there came a famine over all of Egypt and Canaan, with great distress, and our forefathers could find no fodder [for the cattle] or vegetable sustenance [for their households].^(I)

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our forefathers [to go there on their] first trip.^(J)

¹³ And on their second visit Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh and his origin and race.^(K)

¹⁴ And Joseph sent an invitation calling to himself Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.^(L)

¹⁵ And Jacob went down into Egypt, where he himself died, as did [also] our forefathers;^(M)

¹⁶ And their ^[c]bodies [Jacob’s and Joseph’s] were taken back to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of [silver] money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(N)