Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 99

¹ The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [with reverential fear]! He sits [enthroned] above the cherubim, let the earth quake!

² The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples.

³ Let them confess and praise Your great name, awesome and reverence inspiring! It is holy, and holy is He!^(A)

⁴ The strength of the king who loves righteousness and equity You establish in uprightness; You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).

⁵ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His footstool! Holy is He!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.

⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them.^(B)

⁸ You answered them, O Lord our God; You were a forgiving God to them, although avenging their evildoing and wicked practices.

⁹ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy!

¹¹ Elkanah and his wife Hannah returned to Ramah to his house. But the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.

¹² The sons of Eli were base and worthless; they did not know or regard the Lord.

¹³ And the custom of the priests with the people was this: when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the flesh was boiling with a fleshhook of three prongs in his hand;

¹⁴ And he thrust it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh with all the Israelites who came there.

¹⁵ Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant came and said to the man who sacrificed, Give the priest meat to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.

¹⁶ And if the man said to him, Let them burn the fat first, and then you may take as much as you want, the priest’s servant would say, No! Give it to me now or I will take it by force.

¹⁷ So the sin of the [two] young men was very great before the Lord, for they despised the offering of the Lord.

¹⁹ You will say to me, Why then does He still find fault and blame us [for sinning]? For who can resist and withstand His will?

²⁰ But who are you, a mere man, to criticize and contradict and answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?^(A)

²¹ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same mass (lump) one vessel for beauty and distinction and honorable use, and another for menial or ignoble and dishonorable use?

²² What if God, although fully intending to show [the awfulness of] His wrath and to make known His power and authority, has tolerated with much patience the vessels (objects) of [His] anger which are ripe for destruction?^(B)

²³ And [what if] He thus purposes to make known and show the wealth of His glory in [dealing with] the vessels (objects) of His mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory,

²⁴ Even including ourselves whom He has called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles (heathen)?

²⁵ Just as He says in Hosea, Those who were not My people I will call My people, and her who was not beloved [I will call] My beloved.^(C)

²⁶ And it shall be that in the very place where it was said to them, You are not My people, they shall be called sons of the living God.^(D)

²⁷ And Isaiah calls out (solemnly cries aloud) over Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only the remnant (a small part of them) will be saved [^[a]from perdition, condemnation, judgment]!

²⁸ For the Lord will execute His sentence upon the earth [He will conclude and close His account with men completely and without delay], rigorously cutting it short in His justice.^(E)

²⁹ It is as Isaiah predicted, If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed [from which to propagate descendants], we [Israel] would have fared like Sodom and have been made like Gomorrah.^(F)