Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the Director: By the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
Gratitude for Victory
18 He said:
“I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God,
my stronghold[a] in whom I take refuge, my shield, the glory[b]
of my salvation, and my high tower.”
3 I cried out to the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I was delivered from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
the rivers of Belial[c] made me afraid.
5 The cords of Sheol[d] surrounded me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I cried to the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his Temple he heard my voice;
my cry reached his ears.
7 The world shook and trembled;
the foundations of the mountains quaked,
they shook because he was angry.
8 In his anger smoke poured out of his nostrils,
and consuming fire from his mouth;
coals were lit from it.
9 He bent the sky and descended,
and darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode upon a cherub and flew;
he soared upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
his canopy surrounding him was dark waters and thick clouds.
12 The brightness before him scattered the thick clouds,
with hail stones and flashes of fire.
13 Then the Lord thundered in[e] the heavens,
and the Most High sounded aloud,
calling for hail stones and flashes of fire.[f]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
with many lightning bolts he frightened them.
15 Then the channels of the sea could be seen,
and the foundations of the earth were uncovered
because of your rebuke, Lord,
because of the blast from the breath of your nostrils.
16 He reached down and took me;
he drew me from many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemies,
from those who hated me because
they were stronger than I.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
he delivered me, for in me he takes delight.
Sodom’s Depravity
19 The two angels entered Sodom at sunset while Lot was sitting in the gate area of the city.[a] When Lot saw them,[b] he got up, greeted them, bowed low with his face to the ground, 2 and said, “Look, my lords! Please come inside your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and be on your way.”
But they responded, “No, we would rather spend the night in the town square.”
3 But Lot[c] kept urging them strongly, so they turned aside and entered his house. He prepared a festival and baked unleavened flat bread for them, and they ate.
4 Before they could lie down, all the men of Sodom and its outskirts, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot and asked, “Where are the men who came to visit[d] you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with[e] them!”
6 Lot went outside to them, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “I urge you, my brothers, don’t do such a wicked thing. 8 Look here, I have two daughters who are virgins.[f] Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish,[g] only don’t do anything to these men, because they’re here under my protection.”[h]
9 But they replied, “Get out of the way! This man came here as a foreigner, and now he’s acting like a judge! So we’re going to deal more harshly with you than with them.” Then they pushed hard against the man (that is, against Lot), intending to break down the door.
10 But the angels[i] inside reached out, dragged Lot back into the house with them, shut the door, 11 and blinded the men who were at the entrance of the house, from the least important to the greatest, so they were unable to find the doorway.
Lot Negotiates with the Angels
12 “Do you have anyone else here in the city?” the angels[j] asked Lot. “A son-in-law? Sons? Daughters? Get them out of this place, 13 because we’re going to destroy it. Their outcry has come to the attention of the Lord, so he[k] sent us here to destroy it!”
14 Lot then went out and told his sons-in-law (they had married his daughters), “Get out of here! The Lord is going to destroy this city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 As dawn was breaking, the angels pressured Lot. “Get going!” they told him. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be engulfed by the devastation that’s coming to this city.”
16 But Lot kept lingering in the city,[l] so the men[m] grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters (because of the Lord’s compassion for him!), brought them out of the city, and left them outside. 17 Then one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the plain. Escape to the hills, or you’ll be swept away!”
18 “No! Please, my lords!” Lot pleaded with them. 19 “Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I’m afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it’s a small one. Let me escape there! It’s a small one, isn’t it? That way I’ll stay alive!”
21 “All right,” the angel replied to Lot,[n] “I’ll agree with your request![o] I won’t overthrow the town that you mentioned. 22 Hurry up and flee there, because I cannot do anything until you get to that town.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.[p]
Lot’s Wife Becomes a Pillar of Salt
23 The sun had risen over the land about the time Lot reached Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the Lord on Sodom and Gomorrah, 25 overthrowing those cities, all of the plain, and everyone who lived in the cities. He also destroyed the plants that grew out of the ground. 26 But Lot’s[q] wife looked back as she lingered behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord earlier. 28 He looked off toward Sodom, Gomorrah, and the entire[r] plain, and he saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. 29 And so it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out from the midst of the destruction when he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
14 What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will be merciful to the person I want to be merciful to, and I will be kind to the person I want to be kind to.”[a] 16 Therefore, God’s choice[b] does not depend on a person’s will or effort, but on God himself, who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says about Pharaoh,
“I have raised you up for this very purpose,
to demonstrate my power through you
and that my name might be proclaimed
in all the earth.”[c]
18 Therefore, God[d] has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
God Chose People who are Not Jewish
19 You may ask me, “Then why does God[e] still find fault with anybody?[f] For who can resist his will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you—mere man that you are—to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn’t he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.
22 Now if God wants to demonstrate his wrath and reveal his power, can’t he be extremely patient with the objects of his wrath that are made for destruction? 23 Can’t he also reveal his glorious riches to the objects of his mercy that he has prepared ahead of time for glory— 24 including us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but from the gentiles as well? 25 As the Scripture[g] says in Hosea,
“Those who are not my people
I will call my people,
and the one who was not loved
I will call my loved one.[h]
26 In the very place where it was told them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called children of the living God.”[i]
27 Isaiah also calls out concerning Israel,
“Although the descendants of Israel
are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore,
only a few will be saved.
28 For the Lord[j] will carry out his plan decisively,
bringing it to completion on the earth.”[k]
29 It is just as Isaiah predicted:
“If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
had not left us some descendants,
we would have become like Sodom
and would have been compared to Gomorrah.”[l]
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.