Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The God of Israel at Sinai

68 May God rise up. May those who hate Him be divided. And may they run away from Him. ² Drive them away like smoke in the wind. Let the sinful be destroyed before God like a candle melts by the fire. ³ But let those who are right and good be glad. Let them be happy before God. Yes, let them be full of joy. ⁴ Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Make a road for Him Who goes through the deserts. The Lord is His name. Be full of joy before Him.

⁵ God in His holy house is a father to those who have no father. And He keeps the women safe whose husbands have died. ⁶ God makes a home for those who are alone. He leads men out of prison into happiness and well-being. But those who fight against Him live in an empty desert.

⁷ O God, when You went out before Your people, when You walked through the desert, ⁸ the earth shook. The heavens poured down rain before God. And Sinai shook before God, the God of Israel. ⁹ You sent a heavy rain, O God. You brought life back to Your promised land when it was dry. ¹⁰ Your people made it their home. O God, You gave the poor what they needed because You are good.

¹⁹ Honor and thanks be to the Lord, Who carries our heavy loads day by day. He is the God Who saves us. ²⁰ Our God is a God Who sets us free. The way out of death belongs to God the Lord.

²⁹ The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. So he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and through Mizpah of Gilead. He went from Mizpah of Gilead to the people of Ammon. ³⁰ Jephthah made a promise to the Lord and said, “You give the people of Ammon into my hand. ³¹ And I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of Ammon. I will give it to the Lord as a burnt gift.” ³² Then Jephthah crossed over to fight against the people of Ammon. And the Lord gave them into his hand. ³³ He killed many of them from Aroer to Minnith, through twenty cities, as far as Abelkeramin. The people of Ammon were destroyed in front of the people of Israel.

Jephthah’s Daughter

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. His daughter came out to meet him with music and dancing. She was his one and only child. He had no other sons or daughters. ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “It is bad, my daughter! You have made me very sad. You have brought much trouble to me. For I have made a promise to the Lord, and I must keep it.” ³⁶ She said to him, “My father, you have made a promise to the Lord. Do to me what you have promised you would do. Because the Lord has punished the people of Ammon, who fought against you. ³⁷ But do this for me. Let me alone for two months. So I and my friends may go to the mountains and cry because I will never have a man.” ³⁸ Jephthah said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months with her friends. And they cried on the mountains because she would never have a man. ³⁹ She returned to her father after two months. And he did what he promised the Lord and she died without having a man. So it became the way in Israel ⁴⁰ that the daughters of Israel went to have sorrow for the daughter of Jephthah for four days each year.

¹¹ But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to stand up against him because he was guilty. ¹² Peter had been eating with the people who are not Jews. But after some men came who had been with James, he kept away from them. He was afraid of those who believe in the religious act of becoming a Jew. ¹³ Then the rest of the Jews followed him because they were afraid to do what they knew they should do. Even Barnabas was fooled by those who pretended to be someone they were not. ¹⁴ When I saw they were not honest about the truth of the Good News, I spoke to Peter in front of them all. I said, “If you are a Jew, but live like the people who are not Jews, why do you make the people who are not Jews live like the Jews?”