Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord Is My Rock and My Fortress

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, ^(A)the servant of the Lord, ^(B)who addressed the words of this ^(C)song to the Lord on the day when the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the ^(A)fountains of the great deep burst forth, and ^(B)the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. ¹⁵ They ^(C)went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in ^(D)as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood ^(E)continued for forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits^[a] deep. ²¹ And ^(F)all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on the dry land ^(G)in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³ He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only ^(H)Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days.

The Flood Subsides

8 But God ^(I)remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And ^(J)God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. ^2 (K)The fountains of the deep and ^(L)the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ³ and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end ^(M)of 150 days the waters had abated, ⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of ^(N)Ararat. ⁵ And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁴ For if God did not spare ^(A)angels when they sinned, but ^(B)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(C)to be kept until the judgement; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(D)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(E)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by ^(F)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(G)making them an example of ^(H)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{[c] 7} and ^(I)if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^(J)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then ^(K)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement, ¹⁰ and especially ^(L)those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and ^(M)despise authority.

Bold and wilful, they do not tremble ^(N)as they blaspheme the glorious ones,