Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Ascents

Praise to the Creator

The Covenant is Sealed with Blood

24 The Lord^[a] told Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship^[b] at a distance. ² Only Moses is to approach the Lord, but the others^[c] are not to approach; the people are not to come up with him.”

³ Then Moses came and reported all the words of the Lord and all the statutes to the people, and they all^[d] answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has decreed.”

⁴ So Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He got up early in the morning and built an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. ⁵ He sent young Israeli men to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifice bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls, while he sprinkled the other half^[e] on the altar. ⁷ He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to^[f] the people. They said, “We will put into practice and obey everything that the Lord has decreed.”

⁸ Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord made with you based on all these words.”

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky. ¹¹ Because^[g] God^[h] did not punish^[i] the Israeli leaders, they looked at God, yet lived^[j] to eat and drink.

Jesus Appears to Seven of His Disciples

21 Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. This is what happened: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin),^[a] Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two of his other disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter told them, “I’m going fishing.”

They all told him, “We’ll go with you, too.” So they went out and got into the boat but didn’t catch a thing that night.

⁴ Just as dawn was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. The disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus asked them, “Children, you don’t have any fish, do you?”

They answered him, “No.”

⁶ He told them, “Throw the net on the right hand side of the boat, and you’ll catch^[b] some.” So they threw it out and were unable to haul it in because it was so full of fish.

⁷ That disciple whom Jesus kept loving told Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his clothes back on, because he was practically naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸ But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. They were only about 200 cubits^[c] away from the shore.

⁹ When they arrived at the shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish lying on it, and some bread. ¹⁰ Jesus told them, “Bring me some of the fish you’ve just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish—153 of them. And although there were so many of them, the net was not torn.

¹² Then Jesus told them, “Come, have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”, because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus took the bread, gave it to them, and did^[d] the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after he had been raised from the dead.