Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
23 (A)You who fear the Lord, praise Him!
All you [a]descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But (B)when He cried to Him, He heard.
25 (C)My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
(D)I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!
27 All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the [b]nations
Shall worship before [c]You.
28 (E)For the kingdom is the Lord’s,
And He rules over the nations.
29 (F)All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
(G)All those who go down to [d]the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.
Hagar and Ishmael
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, (A)had borne him no children. And she had (B)an Egyptian maidservant whose name was (C)Hagar. 2 (D)So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord (E)has restrained me from bearing children. Please, (F)go in to my maid; perhaps I shall [a]obtain children by her.” And Abram (G)heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram (H)had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became (I)despised in her [b]eyes.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, [c]“My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. (J)The Lord judge between you and me.”
6 (K)So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, (L)she fled from her presence.
Abraham Justified by Faith(A)
4 What then shall we say that (B)Abraham our (C)father[a] has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was (D)justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? (E)“Abraham believed God, and it was [b]accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now (F)to him who works, the wages are not counted [c]as grace but as debt.
David Celebrates the Same Truth
5 But to him who (G)does not work but believes on Him who justifies (H)the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also (I)describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed(J) are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
Abraham Justified Before Circumcision
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And (K)he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that (L)he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father (M)Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.