Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

12 And Jehovah saith unto Abram, `Go for thyself, from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, unto the land which I shew thee.

² And I make thee become a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.

³ And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground.'

⁴ And Abram goeth on, as Jehovah hath spoken unto him, and Lot goeth with him, and Abram [is] a son of five and seventy years in his going out from Charan.

121 A Song of the Ascents. I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, Whence doth my help come?

² My help [is] from Jehovah, maker of heaven and earth,

³ He suffereth not thy foot to be moved, Thy preserver slumbereth not.

⁴ Lo, He slumbereth not, nor sleepeth, He who is preserving Israel.

⁵ Jehovah [is] thy preserver, Jehovah [is] thy shade on thy right hand,

⁶ By day the sun doth not smite thee, Nor the moon by night.

⁷ Jehovah preserveth thee from all evil, He doth preserve thy soul.

⁸ Jehovah preserveth thy going out and thy coming in, From henceforth even unto the age!

4 What, then, shall we say Abraham our father, to have found, according to flesh?

² for if Abraham by works was declared righteous, he hath to boast -- but not before god;

³ for what doth the writing say? `And Abraham did believe God, and it was reckoned to him -- to righteousness;'

⁴ and to him who is working, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt;

⁵ and to him who is not working, and is believing upon Him who is declaring righteous the impious, his faith is reckoned -- to righteousness:

¹³ For not through law [is] the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, of his being heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith;

¹⁴ for if they who are of law [are] heirs, the faith hath been made void, and the promise hath been made useless;

¹⁵ for the law doth work wrath; for where law is not, neither [is] transgression.

¹⁶ Because of this [it is] of faith, that [it may be] according to grace, for the promise being sure to all the seed, not to that which [is] of the law only, but also to that which [is] of the faith of Abraham,

¹⁷ who is father of us all (according as it hath been written -- `A father of many nations I have set thee,') before Him whom he did believe -- God, who is quickening the dead, and is calling the things that be not as being.

3 And there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus his name, a ruler of the Jews,

² this one came unto him by night, and said to him, `Rabbi, we have known that from God thou hast come -- a teacher, for no one these signs is able to do that thou dost, if God may not be with him.'

³ Jesus answered and said to him, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God;'

⁴ Nicodemus saith unto him, `How is a man able to be born, being old? is he able into the womb of his mother a second time to enter, and to be born?'

⁵ Jesus answered, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God;

⁶ that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ `Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be born from above;

⁸ the Spirit where he willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is every one who hath been born of the Spirit.'

⁹ Nicodemus answered and said to him, `How are these things able to happen?'

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, `Thou art the teacher of Israel -- and these things thou dost not know!

¹¹ `Verily, verily, I say to thee -- What we have known we speak, and what we have seen we testify, and our testimony ye do not receive;

¹² if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe?

¹³ and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down -- the Son of Man who is in the heaven.

¹⁴ `And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up,

¹⁵ that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during,

¹⁶ for God did so love the world, that His Son -- the only begotten -- He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during.

¹⁷ For God did not send His Son to the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him;

17 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John his brother, and doth bring them up to a high mount by themselves,

² and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone as the sun, and his garments did become white as the light,

³ and lo, appear to them did Moses and Elijah, talking together with him.

⁴ And Peter answering said to Jesus, `Sir, it is good to us to be here; if thou wilt, we may make here three booths -- for thee one, and for Moses one, and one for Elijah.'

⁵ While he is yet speaking, lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, `This is My Son, -- the Beloved, in whom I did delight; hear him.'

⁶ And the disciples having heard, did fall upon their face, and were exceedingly afraid,

⁷ and Jesus having come near, touched them, and said, `Rise, be not afraid,'

⁸ and having lifted up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus only.

⁹ And as they are coming down from the mount, Jesus charged them, saying, `Say to no one the vision, till the Son of Man out of the dead may rise.'