Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song of Asaph.
The Acceptable Sacrifice
50 God, the Lord,[a] has spoken.
He has summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting place.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God has shined forth.
3 Our God has appeared and he has not been silent;
a devouring fire blazed before him,
and a mighty storm swirled around him.
4 He summoned the heavens above
and the earth below,[b]
to sit in judgment on his people.
5 “Assemble before me, my saints,
who have entered into my covenant by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens revealed his justice,
for God is himself the judge.
7 “Listen, my people,
for I am making a pronouncement:
Israel, I, God, your God, am testifying against you.
8 I do not rebuke you because of your sacrifices;
indeed, your burnt offerings are continuously before me.
22 Consider this, you who have forgotten God—
Otherwise, I will tear you in pieces
and there will be no deliverer:
23 Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,
and I will reveal the salvation of God
to whomever continues in my way.”[a]
18 “For wickedness has burned like a blaze
that consumes briers and thorns;
it sets thickets of the forest on fire,
and skyward[a] they swirl
in a column of smoke.
19 From[b] the wrath of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
the land has been scorched,
and the people have become like fuel for the fire;
no one will spare his neighbor.
20 They cut meat on the right,
but they’re still hungry,
and they devour also[c] on the left,
but they’re not satisfied;
each devours the flesh of his own children.[d]
21 Manasseh devours Ephraim,
and Ephraim devours Manasseh;
together they are against Judah.
“Yet[e] for all this, his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.”[f]
Judgment on Unjust Lawmakers
10 “How terrible it will be for the one[g] who enacts unjust decrees,
for those who write oppressive laws
that they have prescribed
2 to deprive the needy of justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their rights,[h]
so that widows may become their spoil
and so that they may plunder orphans![i]
3 What will you do on the day of Judgment,[j]
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you run for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4 so you won’t have to crouch among those in chains[k]
or fall among the slain?
Stephen Defends Himself
7 Then the high priest asked, “Is this true?”
2 Stephen replied:
“Listen, brothers and fathers!
“The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. 3 God[a] told him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I’ll show you.’[b] 4 So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live. 5 God[c] gave him no property here,[d] not even a foot of land,[e] yet he promised to give it to him and to his descendants[f] after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child.
6 “This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people[g] would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation they serve,’ said God, ‘and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’[h]
8 Later, God[i] gave Abraham[j] the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered[k] the twelve patriarchs.
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