Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God Protects His People
For the director of music. By alamoth. A song of the sons of Korah.
46 God is our protection and our strength.
He always helps in times of trouble.
2 So we will not be afraid if the earth shakes,
or if the mountains fall into the sea.
3 We will not fear even if the oceans roar and foam,
or if the mountains shake at the raging sea. Selah
4 There is a river which brings joy to the city of God.
This is the holy place where God Most High lives.
5 God is in that city, and so it will not be shaken.
God will help her at dawn.
6 Nations tremble, and kingdoms shake.
God shouts, and the earth crumbles.
7 The Lord of heaven’s armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our protection. Selah
8 Come and see what the Lord has done.
He has done amazing things on the earth.
9 He stops wars everywhere on the earth.
He breaks all bows and spears
and burns up the chariots with fire.
10 God says, “Be still and know that I am God.
I will be praised in all the nations.
I will be praised throughout the earth.”
11 The Lord of heaven’s armies is with us.
The God of Jacob is our protection. Selah
The First People
4 This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the sky, 5 there were no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields. The Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no man to care for the ground. 6 But a mist often rose from the earth and watered all the ground.
7 Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed man from it. The Lord breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose. And the man became a living person. 8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place called Eden. He put the man he had formed in that garden. 9 The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life. And he put there the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From that point the river was divided. It had four streams flowing into it. 11 The name of the first stream is Pishon. It flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 That gold is good. Bdellium and onyx[a] are also there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris. It flows out of Assyria toward the east. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. 16 The Lord God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden. 17 But you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!”
The First Woman
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.”
19 From the ground God formed every wild animal and every bird in the sky. He brought them to the man so the man could name them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. 20 The man gave names to all the tame animals, to the birds in the sky and to all the wild animals. But Adam[b] did not find a helper that was right for him. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply. While the man was asleep, God took one of the ribs from the man’s body. Then God closed the man’s skin at the place where he took the rib. 22 The Lord God used the rib from the man to make a woman. Then the Lord brought the woman to the man.
23 And the man said,
“Now, this is someone whose bones came from my bones.
Her body came from my body.
I will call her ‘woman,’
because she was taken out of man.”
24 So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.
25 The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed.
6 I do not mean that God failed to keep his promise to them. But only some of the people of Israel are truly God’s people.[a] 7 And only some of Abraham’s[b] descendants are true children of Abraham. But God said to Abraham: “The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac.”[c] 8 This means that not all of Abraham’s descendants are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise God made to Abraham. 9 God’s promise to Abraham was this: “At the right time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”[d] 10 And that is not all. Rebekah also had sons. And those sons had the same father, our father Isaac. 11-12 But before the two boys were born, God told Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.”[e] This was before the boys had done anything good or bad. God said this before they were born so that the one chosen would be chosen because of God’s own plan. He was chosen because he was the one God wanted to call, not because of anything he did. 13 As the Scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”[f]
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.