Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Is Our Fortress

To the choirmaster. Of ^(A)the Sons of Korah. According to ^(B)Alamoth.^[a] A Song.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁵ When no ^(B)bush of the field^[a] was yet in the land^[b] and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man ^(C)to work the ground, ⁶ and a mist^[c] was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— ⁷ then the Lord God formed the man of ^(D)dust from the ground and ^(E)breathed into his ^(F)nostrils the breath of life, and ^(G)the man became a living creature. ⁸ And the Lord God planted a ^(H)garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. ^(I)The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, ^(J)and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of ^(K)Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ And the name of the third river is the ^(L)Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man ^(M)and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ^(N)you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat^[d] of it you ^(O)shall surely die.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; ^(P)I will make him a helper fit for^[e] him.” ^19 (Q)Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed^[f] every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and ^(R)brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam^[g] there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a ^(S)deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made^[h] into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

^24 (V)Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, ⁷ and not all are children of Abraham ^(A)because they are his offspring, but ^(B)“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ⁸ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but ^(C)the children of the promise are counted as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise said: ^(D)“About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” ¹⁰ And not only so, but ^(E)also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, ¹¹ though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of ^(F)him who calls— ¹² she was told, ^(G)“The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written, ^(H)“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”