Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
99 Adonai is king; let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned on the k’ruvim; let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Tziyon;
he is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and fearsome name (he is holy):
4 “Mighty king who loves justice, you established
fairness, justice and righteousness in Ya‘akov.”
5 Exalt Adonai our God!
Prostrate yourselves at his footstool (he is holy).
6 Moshe and Aharon among his cohanim
and Sh’mu’el among those who call on his name
called on Adonai, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the column of cloud;
they kept his instructions and the law that he gave them.
8 Adonai our God, you answered them.
To them you were a forgiving God,
although you took vengeance on their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
bow down toward his holy mountain,
for Adonai our God is holy!
11 Elkanah went home to Ramah, while the child began ministering to Adonai under the direction of ‘Eli the cohen.
12 ‘Eli’s sons were scoundrels who had no regard for Adonai. 13 The rule these cohanim followed in dealing with the people was that when anyone offered a sacrifice, the cohen’s servant would come, while the meat was stewing, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 He would stick it in the pan, kettle, caldron or pot; and the cohen would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they dealt with all the people of Isra’el who came there to Shiloh. 15 The cohen’s servant would actually come before the fat had burned to smoke and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the cohen meat he can roast; because he doesn’t want your meat stewed, but raw.” 16 If the man answered, “First let the fat burn to smoke, then take as much as you want,” he would say, “No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” 17 The sin of these young men was very serious in Adonai’s view, because they treated offerings made to Adonai with contempt.
19 But you will say to me, “Then why does he still find fault with us? After all, who resists his will?” 20 Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me this way?”[a] 21 Or has the potter no right to make from a given lump of clay this pot for honorable use and that one for dishonorable? 22 Now what if God, even though he was quite willing to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, patiently put up with people who deserved punishment and were ripe for destruction? 23 What if he did this in order to make known the riches of his glory to those who are the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory — 24 that is, to us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hoshea,
“Those who were not my people I will call my people;
her who was not loved I will call loved;
26 and in the very place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called sons of the living God!”[b]
27 But Yesha‘yahu, referring to Isra’el, cries out,
“Even if the number of people in Isra’el is as large
as the number of grains of sand by the sea,
only a remnant will be saved.
28 For Adonai will fulfill his word on the earth
with certainty and without delay.”[c]
29 Also, as Yesha‘yahu said earlier,
“If Adonai-Tzva’ot had not left us a seed,
we would have become like S’dom,
we would have resembled ‘Amora.”[d]
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.