Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Yahweh Is a Fortress

For the music director. A psalm of David.^[a]

Yahweh’s Plan to Rescue the Israelites

3 And Moses was a shepherd with the flock^[a] of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the west of the desert, and he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ² And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not being consumed. ³ And Moses said, “Let me turn aside and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn up?” ⁴ And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush, and he said, “Moses, Moses.” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ And he said, “You must not come near to here. Take off your sandals from on your feet, because the place on which you are standing, it is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face because he was afraid of looking at God.

⁷ And Yahweh said, “Surely I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry of distress because of their oppressors, for I know their sufferings. ⁸ And I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from this land to a good and wide land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites^[b] and the Hittites^[c] and the Amorites^[d] and the Perizzites^[e] and the Hivites^[f] and the Jebusites.^{[g] 9} And now, look, the cry of distress of the Israelites^[h] has come to me, and also I see the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and you must bring my people, the Israelites,^[i] out from Egypt.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites^[j] out from Egypt?” ¹² And he said, “Because I am with you, and this will be the sign for you that I myself have sent you: When you bring the people out from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”

Stephen’s Defense

7 And the high priest said, “Is it so concerning these things?” ² So he said, “Men—brothers and fathers—listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he^[a] was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and^[b] settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he caused him to move to this land in which you now live. ⁵ And he did not give him an inheritance in it—not even a footstep^[c]—and he promised to give it^[d] to him for his possession, and to his descendants after him, although he did not have^[e][f] a child. ⁶ But God spoke like this: ‘His descendants will be foreigners in a foreign land, and they will enslave them and mistreat them^[g] four hundred years, ⁷ and the nation that^[h] they will serve as slaves, I will judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out^[i] and will worship me in this place.’^{[j] 8} And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did so with^[k] Jacob, and Jacob did so with^[l] the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ And the patriarchs, because they^[m] were jealous of Joseph, sold him^[n] into Egypt. And God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him ruler over Egypt and all^[o] his household. ¹¹ And a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could not find food. ¹² So when^[p] Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³ And on the second visit^[q] Joseph was made known to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ So Joseph sent and^[r] summoned his father Jacob and all his^[s] relatives, seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵ And Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ And they were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.