Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 68[a]
For the music director, by David, a psalm, a song.
68 God springs into action.[b]
His enemies scatter;
his adversaries[c] run from him.[d]
2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away.[e]
As wax melts before fire,
so the wicked are destroyed before God.
3 But the godly[f] are happy;
they rejoice before God
and are overcome with joy.[g]
4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name.
Exalt the one who rides on the clouds.[h]
For the Lord is his name.[i]
Rejoice before him.
5 He is a father to the fatherless
and an advocate for widows.[j]
God rules from his holy dwelling place.[k]
6 God settles in their own homes those who have been deserted;[l]
he frees prisoners and grants them prosperity.[m]
But sinful rebels live in the desert.[n]
7 O God, when you lead your people into battle,[o]
when you march through the wastelands,[p] (Selah)
8 the earth shakes.
Yes, the heavens pour down rain
before God, the God of Sinai,[q]
before God, the God of Israel.[r]
9 O God, you cause abundant showers to fall[s] on your chosen people.[t]
When they[u] are tired, you sustain them,[v]
10 for you live among them.[w]
You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.
9 The fatherless child is snatched[a] from the breast,[b]
the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.[c]
10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.[d]
11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;[e]
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.[f]
12 From the city the dying[g] groan,
and the wounded[h] cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrongdoing.[i]
13 There are those[j] who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
14 Before daybreak[k] the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is[l] like a thief.[m]
15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking,[n] ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
16 In the dark the robber[o] breaks into houses,[p]
but by day they shut themselves in;[q]
they do not know the light.[r]
17 For all of them,[s] the morning is to them like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
18 [t] “You say,[u] ‘He is foam[v] on the face of the waters;[w]
their portion of the land is cursed
so that no one goes to their vineyard.[x]
19 The drought[y] as well as the heat
snatch up the melted snow;[z]
so the grave[aa] snatches up the sinner.[ab]
20 The womb[ac] forgets him,
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
21 He preys on[ad] the barren and childless woman,[ae]
and does not treat the widow well.
22 But God[af] drags off the mighty by his power;
when God[ag] rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.[ah]
23 God[ai] may let them rest in a feeling of security,[aj]
but he is constantly watching[ak] all their ways.[al]
24 They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone,[am]
they are brought low[an] like all others, and gathered in,[ao]
and like a head of grain they are cut off.’[ap]
25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar
and reduce my words to nothing?”[aq]
Paul Rebukes Peter
11 But when Cephas[a] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong.[b] 12 Until[c] certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this[d] and separated himself[e] because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision.[f] 13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them[g] by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force[h] the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.