Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Song of Praise

33 Sing for joy in the Lord, you who are right with Him. It is right for the pure in heart to praise Him. ² Give thanks to the Lord with harps. Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. ³ Sing to Him a new song. Play well with loud sounds of joy. ⁴ For the Word of the Lord is right. He is faithful in all He does. ⁵ He loves what is right and good and what is fair. The earth is full of the loving-kindness of the Lord.

⁶ The heavens were made by the Word of the Lord. All the stars were made by the breath of His mouth. ⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as in a bag. He places the waters in store-houses. ⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world honor Him. ⁹ For He spoke, and it was done. He spoke with strong words, and it stood strong. ¹⁰ The Lord brings the plans of nations to nothing. He wrecks the plans of the people. ¹¹ The plans of the Lord stand forever. The plans of His heart stand through the future of all people. ¹² Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. Happy are the people He has chosen for His own.

Abram and Lot Go Different Ways

13 So Abram left Egypt and went to the Negev, with his wife and all that belonged to him. And Lot went with him. ² Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold. ³ He traveled from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, ⁴ where he had made an altar. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. ⁵ Now Lot, who went with Abram, had flocks and cattle and tents of his own. ⁶ There was not enough land to feed all the animals while they lived together. They owned so many things that they were not able to stay together. ⁷ There was fighting between those who cared for Abram’s animals and those who cared for Lot’s animals. The Canaanite and the Perizzite were living in the land at that time. ⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no fighting between you and me or between the men who take care of our animals, for we are brothers. ⁹ Is not the whole land in front of you? Let each of us go a different way. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

¹⁰ Lot looked and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose all the Jordan valley for himself. And as Lot traveled east, they went apart from each other. ¹² Abram made his home in the land of Canaan. Lot made his home in the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom, ¹³ whose men were sinful, sinning against the Lord.

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had left him, “Raise your eyes and look from where you are to the north and south and east and west. ¹⁵ For I will give all the land that you see to you and to your children and to your children’s children forever. ¹⁶ I will make your family after you like the dust of the earth. So if anyone could number the dust of the earth, then he could number your children’s children. ¹⁷ Rise up and walk far and wide upon the land. For I will give it to you.” ¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent and came to live among the oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.

¹⁷ Such people are like wells without water. They are like clouds before a storm. The darkest place below has been kept for them. ¹⁸ They speak big-sounding words which show they are proud. They get men who are trying to keep away from sinful men to give in to the sinful desires of the flesh. ¹⁹ They promise that these men will be free. But they themselves are chained to sin. For a man is chained to anything that has power over him.

²⁰ There are men who have been made free from the sins of the world by learning to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. But if they do these sins again, and are not able to keep from doing them, they are worse than they were before. ²¹ After knowing the holy Law that was given to them, they turned from it. It would have been better for them if they had not known how to be right with God. ²² They are like the wise saying, “A dog turns back to what he has thrown up.” ^(A) And, “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”