Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Israelites arrive at Sinai mountain

19 ^1-2 After the Israelites left Rephidim, they went into the Sinai desert. The Israelites put up their tents in the desert, at the side of Sinai mountain. That happened on the first day of the third month since they came out of Egypt.

³ Moses went up the mountain to speak with God. The Lord spoke to him from the mountain. He said, ‘This is what you must say to the Israelites, Jacob's descendants: ⁴ “You yourselves have seen what I did against the Egyptians. You know how I took care of you. I carried you carefully, like an eagle carries her babies on her wings. I brought you here to come to me. ⁵ Now you must be careful to obey me and my covenant with you. Then you will belong to me as my special people. The whole earth belongs to me, and I have chosen you from among all the nations. ⁶ You will be my priests who serve in my kingdom. You will be a nation that is special to me.” These are the words that you must speak to the Israelites.’

⁷ So Moses came back down from the mountain. He brought together all the leaders of the Israelites. He told them all the words that the Lord had commanded him. ⁸ The people all replied together. They said, ‘We will do everything that the Lord has said.’ Then Moses repeated their answer to the Lord.

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will come to you in a thick cloud. Then the people will hear me when I speak to you. Then they will always believe what you say.’ Moses told the Lord the words that the people had said.

The Holy Spirit comes

2 Then the day of the Pentecost festival arrived. All the believers were meeting together in one place.^{[a] 2} Suddenly, as they were sitting together, they heard a noise. The noise came from the sky and it filled the whole house. It was like the sound of a strong wind. ³ Then they saw something that looked like many small fires. The separate fires moved and went to sit on each person there. ⁴ All the believers became full with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in languages that they had not learned. They spoke whatever language the Holy Spirit helped them to speak.

⁵ At that time, Jews who came from many different countries in the world were staying in Jerusalem. They were Jews who carefully obeyed God's Law. ⁶ When these Jews heard the noise, a large crowd of them came together in that place. As the believers spoke, each person in the crowd could hear the message in their own language. This confused them. ⁷ They were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘These men who are speaking our languages are all from Galilee. ⁸ But each of us can hear them speak in the language of our own home country. How can this happen? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media and Elam. Some of us live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia. Some of us are from Pontus and Asia. ¹⁰ Some of us are from Phrygia and Pamphylia. Some of us are from Egypt. Some of us are from the country of Libya, near the town of Cyrene. Some of us have come from Rome to visit Jerusalem. ¹¹ Some of us were born as Jews. Others of us are Gentiles who now obey God as the Jews do. Some of us are from Crete and some of us are from Arabia. But we all hear these people speaking in our own languages. They are speaking about all the great things that God has done.’