Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Maschil of Asaph.

¹ ¶ Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter enigmas of old,

³ which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their sons, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their sons:

⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the sons which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their sons

⁷ that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

¹⁷ And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart by asking for food according to the desires of their soul.

¹⁹ And they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

²¹ Therefore the LORD heard this and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel

²² because they had not believed God, nor had they trusted in his saving health;

²³ and he commanded the clouds of above and opened the doors of the heavens

²⁴ and caused manna to rain upon them to eat and gave them wheat of the heavens.

²⁵ Man did eat the food of the strong; he sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power he brought in the south wind.

²⁷ He rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹ So they did eat and were well filled; for he gave them their own desire;

8 ¶ Take care to do all the commandments which I command thee this day that ye may live and be multiplied and enter in and inherit the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers.

² And thou shalt remember all the way by which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to afflict thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would keep his commandments, or not.

³ And he afflicted thee and caused thee to hunger and sustained thee with manna, food of which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD shall man live.

⁴ Thy raiment never waxed old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

⁵ And know in thine heart, that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD thy God chastens thee.

⁶ Keep, therefore, the commandments of the LORD thy God by walking in his ways and fearing him.

⁷ For the LORD thy God brings thee into a good land, a land of brooks, of waters, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills,

⁸ a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olives, of oil, and honey;

⁹ a land in which thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack any thing in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains thou may dig brass.

¹⁰ ¶ Thou shalt eat and be full and bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he has given thee.

⁸ ¶ First, I thank my God through Jesus, the Christ, regarding you all, that your faith is preached in all the world.

⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I always remember you in my prayers,

¹⁰ making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

¹¹ For I long to see you that I may impart with you some spiritual gift to confirm you,

¹² that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

¹³ Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that many times I purposed to come unto you (but up until now I have been unable) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

¹⁴ I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise.

¹⁵ So, as much as in me is, I am ready to announce the gospel to you that are at Rome also.