Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

110 Jehovah said to my Lord the Messiah,^[a] “Rule as my regent—I will subdue your enemies and make them bow low before you.”

² Jehovah has established your throne^[b] in Jerusalem to rule over your enemies. ³ In that day of your power your people shall come to you willingly, dressed in holy altar robes.^[c] And your strength shall be renewed day by day like morning dew. ⁴ Jehovah has taken oath and will not rescind his vow that you are a priest forever like^[d] Melchizedek. ⁵ God stands beside you to protect you. He will strike down many kings in the day of his anger. ⁶ He will punish the nations and fill them with their dead. He will crush many heads. ⁷ But he himself shall be refreshed from springs along the way.

²² Then Pharaoh commanded all of his people to throw the newborn Hebrew boys into the Nile River. But the girls, he said, could live.

2 ^1-2 There were at this time a Hebrew fellow and girl of the tribe of Levi who married and had a family, and a baby son was born to them. When the baby’s mother saw that he was an unusually beautiful baby, she hid him at home for three months. ³ Then, when she could no longer hide him, she made a little boat from papyrus reeds, waterproofed it with tar, put the baby in it, and laid it among the reeds along the river’s edge. ⁴ The baby’s sister watched from a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵ Well, this is what happened: A princess, one of Pharaoh’s daughters, came down to bathe in the river, and as she and her maids were walking along the riverbank, she spied the little boat among the reeds and sent one of the maids to bring it to her. ⁶ When she opened it, there was a baby! And he was crying. This touched her heart. “He must be one of the Hebrew children!” she said.

⁷ Then the baby’s sister approached the princess and asked her, “Shall I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸ “Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the little girl rushed home and called her mother!

⁹ “Take this child home and nurse him for me,” the princess instructed the baby’s mother, “and I will pay you well!” So she took him home and nursed him.

¹⁰ Later, when he was older, she brought him back to the princess and he became her son. She named him Moses (meaning “to draw out”^[a]) because she had drawn him out of the water.

²³ Moses’ parents had faith too. When they saw that God had given them an unusual child, they trusted that God would save him from the death the king commanded, and they hid him for three months and were not afraid.

^24-25 It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be treated as the grandson of the king, but chose to share ill-treatment with God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He thought that it was better to suffer for the promised Christ than to own all the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the great reward that God would give him.