Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

106 Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! How good you are! Your love for us continues on forever. ² Who can ever list the glorious miracles of God? Who can ever praise him half enough?

³ Happiness comes to those who are fair to others and are always just and good.

⁴ Remember me too, O Lord, while you are blessing and saving your people. ⁵ Let me share in your chosen ones’ prosperity and rejoice in all their joys, and receive the glory you give to them.

⁶ Both we and our fathers have sinned so much. ⁷ They weren’t impressed by the wonder of your miracles in Egypt and soon forgot your many acts of kindness to them. Instead they rebelled against you at the Red Sea. ⁸ Even so you saved them—to defend the honor of your name and demonstrate your power to all the world. ⁹ You commanded the Red Sea to divide, forming a dry road across its bottom. Yes, as dry as any desert! ¹⁰ Thus you rescued them from their enemies. ¹¹ Then the water returned and covered the road and drowned their foes; not one survived.

¹² Then at last his people believed him. Then they finally sang his praise.

¹⁰ So Jacob left Beer-sheba and journeyed toward Haran. ¹¹ That night, when he stopped to camp at sundown, he found a rock for a headrest and lay down to sleep, ¹² and dreamed that a staircase^[a] reached from earth to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down upon it.

¹³ At the top of the stairs stood the Lord. “I am Jehovah,” he said, “the God of Abraham, and of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on is yours! I will give it to you and to your descendants. ¹⁴ For you will have descendants as many as dust! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south; and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵ What’s more, I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will bring you back safely to this land; I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you all I am promising.”

^16-17 Then Jacob woke up. “God lives here!” he exclaimed in terror. “I’ve stumbled into his home! This is the awesome entrance to heaven!”

¹⁷ And now there is one more thing to say before I end this letter. Stay away from those who cause divisions and are upsetting people’s faith, teaching things about Christ that are contrary to what you have been taught. ¹⁸ Such teachers are not working for our Lord Jesus but only want gain for themselves. They are good speakers, and simple-minded people are often fooled by them. ¹⁹ But everyone knows that you stand loyal and true. This makes me very happy. I want you always to remain very clear about what is right and to stay innocent of any wrong. ²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The blessings from our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.