Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁷ Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live; and I will observe Your word [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].^(A)

¹⁸ Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.

¹⁹ I am a stranger and a temporary resident on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me.^(B)

²⁰ My heart is breaking with the longing that it has for Your ordinances and judgments at all times.

²¹ You rebuke the proud and arrogant, the accursed ones, who err and wander from Your commandments.

²² Take away from me reproach and contempt, for I keep Your testimonies.

²³ Princes also sat and talked against me, but Your servant meditated on Your statutes.

²⁴ Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.

4 And Moses answered, ^[a]But behold, they will not believe me or listen to and obey my voice; for they will say, The Lord has not appeared to you.

² And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.

³ And He said, Cast it on the ground. And he did so and it became a serpent [the symbol of royal and divine power worn on the crown of the Pharaohs]; and Moses fled from before it.

⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth your hand and take it by the tail. And he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand,

⁵ [This you shall do, said the Lord] that the elders may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has indeed appeared to you.

⁶ The Lord said also to him, Put your hand into your bosom. He put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

⁷ [God] said, Put your hand into your bosom again. So he put his hand back into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored as the rest of his flesh.

⁸ [Then God said] If they will not believe you or heed the voice or the testimony of the first sign, they may believe the voice or the witness of the second sign.

⁹ But if they will also not believe these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water of the river [Nile] and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which you take out of the river [Nile] shall become blood on the dry land.

¹⁰ And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not eloquent or a man of words, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and have a heavy and awkward tongue.

¹¹ And the Lord said to him, Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or the deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

¹² Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you shall say.

¹³ And he said, Oh, my Lord, I pray You, send by the hand of [some other] whom You will [send].

¹⁴ Then the anger of the Lord blazed against Moses; He said, Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know he can speak well. Also, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be overjoyed.

¹⁵ You must speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do.

¹⁶ He shall speak for you to the people, acting as a mouthpiece for you, and you shall be as God to him.

¹⁷ And you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall work the signs [that prove I sent you].

2 So be done with every trace of wickedness (depravity, malignity) and all deceit and insincerity (pretense, hypocrisy) and grudges (envy, jealousy) and slander and evil speaking of every kind.

² Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation,

³ Since you have [already] tasted the goodness and kindness of the Lord.^(A)

⁴ Come to Him [then, to that] Living Stone which men ^[a]tried and threw away, but which is chosen [and] precious in God’s sight.^(B)

⁵ [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶ For thus it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a chosen (^[b]honored), precious chief Cornerstone, and he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall never be ^[c]disappointed or put to shame.^(C)

⁷ To you then who believe (who adhere to, trust in, and rely on Him) is the preciousness; but for those who disbelieve [it is true], The [very] Stone which the builders rejected has become the main Cornerstone,^(D)

⁸ And, A Stone that will cause stumbling and a Rock that will give [men] offense; they stumble because they disobey and disbelieve [God’s] Word, as those [who reject Him] were destined (appointed) to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own ^[d]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.^(E)

¹⁰ Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy.^(F)