Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His heritage.

¹³ The Lord looks from heaven, He beholds all the sons of men;

¹⁴ From His dwelling place He looks [intently] upon all the inhabitants of the earth—

¹⁵ He Who fashions the hearts of them all, Who considers all their doings.

¹⁶ No king is saved by the great size and power of his army; a mighty man is not delivered by [his] much strength.

¹⁷ A horse is devoid of value for victory; neither does he deliver any by his great power.

¹⁸ Behold, the Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness,

¹⁹ To deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.

²¹ For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted (relied on and been confident) in His holy name.

²² Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.

19 In the third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the Wilderness of Sinai.

² When they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, they encamped there before the mountain.

³ And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, Say this to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites:

⁴ You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

⁵ Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine.

⁶ And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation [consecrated, set apart to the worship of God]. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites.

⁷ So Moses called for the elders of the people and told them all these words which the Lord commanded him.

⁸ And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you and remain steadfast forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

2 And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled together in one place,

² When suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent tempest blast, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting.

³ And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were separated and distributed and which settled on each one of them.

⁴ And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit ^[a]kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words].

⁵ Now there were then residing in Jerusalem Jews, devout and God-fearing men from every country under heaven.

⁶ And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together and they were astonished and bewildered, because each one heard them [the apostles] speaking in his own [particular] dialect.

⁷ And they were beside themselves with amazement, saying, Are not all these who are talking Galileans?

⁸ Then how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own (particular) dialect to which we were born?

⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and [the province of] Asia,

¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the transient residents from Rome, both Jews and the proselytes [to Judaism from other religions],

¹¹ Cretans and Arabians too—we all hear them speaking in our own native tongues [and telling of] the mighty works of God!