Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ And a new king rose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. ⁹ And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the Israelites^[a] are greater and more numerous than us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, lest they become many, and when war happens, they also will join our enemies and will fight against us and go up from the land.” ¹¹ And they appointed commanders of forced labor over them in order to oppress them with their forced labor,^[b] and they built storage cities for Pharaoh—Pithom and Rameses. ¹² And as he oppressed them, so they became many, and so they spread out, and the Egyptians were afraid because of the presence of the Israelites.^{[c] 13} And the Egyptians ruthlessly compelled the Israelites^[d] to work. ¹⁴ And they made their lives bitter with hard work with mortar and with bricks and with all sorts of work in the field—with all their work in which they ruthlessly enslaved them.

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the second was Puah— ¹⁶ and he said, “When you help the Hebrews give birth, you will look upon the pairs of testicles; if he is a son, you will put him to death, and if she is a daughter, she will live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had said to them. They let the boys live. ¹⁸ And the king of Egypt summoned the midwives, and he said to them, “Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?” ¹⁹ And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, because they are vigorous; before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth.” ²⁰ And God did the midwives good, and the Israelite people became many and were very numerous. ²¹ And so^[e] because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.^{[f] 22} And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you will throw into the Nile, and every daughter you will let live.”

The Birth and Early Life of Moses

2 And a man from the family^[g] of Levi went, and he took a descendent of Levi.^{[h] 2} And the woman conceived, and she gave birth to a son, and she saw him, that he was a fine baby, and she hid him three months. ³ But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him, and she coated it with tar and with pitch, and she placed the boy in it, and she placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile. ⁴ And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. ⁵ And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the Nile, while her maidservants were walking alongside the Nile, and she saw the basket in the midst of the reeds, and she sent her slave woman for it and took it ⁶ and opened it and saw him—the boy—and it was a lad weeping, and she had compassion for him and said, “This must be from the boys of the Hebrews.”^{[i] 7} And his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh, “Shall I go and call for you a woman from the Hebrews who is nursing so that she will nurse the boy for you?” ⁸ And the daughter of Pharaoh said to her, “Go.” And the girl went, and she called the mother of the boy. ⁹ And the daughter of Pharaoh said, “Take this boy and nurse him for me, and I myself will give you wages, and the woman took the boy, and she nursed him. ¹⁰ And the boy grew, and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, “Because I drew him out from the water.”

Thanksgiving for Yahweh’s Help

A song of ascents. Of David.^[a]

A Life Dedicated to God

12 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.

A Variety of Gifts in the Body of Christ

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone who is among you not to think more highly of yourself than what one ought to think, but to think sensibly^[a], as God has apportioned a measure of faith to each one. ⁴ For just as in one body we have many members, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually^[b] members of one another, ⁶ but having different gifts according to the grace given to us: if it is prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; ⁷ if it is service, by service; if it is one who teaches, by teaching; ⁸ if it is one who exhorts, by exhortation; one who gives, with sincerity; one who leads, with diligence; one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi

¹³ Now when^[a] Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,^[b] he began asking^[c] his disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, Some^[d] say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ And Simon Peter answered and^[e] said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and^[f] said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this^[g] to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it! ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound^[h] in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will be released^[i] in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ.