Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

31 In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Thy righteousness.

² Bow down Thine ear to me, deliver me speedily; be Thou my strong rock, a house of defense to save me.

³ For Thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for the sake of Thy name, lead me and guide me.

⁴ Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me, for Thou art my strength.

⁵ Into Thine hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

¹⁵ My times are in Thy hand; deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me.

¹⁶ Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; save me for Thy mercies’ sake.

3 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

² And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

³ And Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

⁴ And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses.” And he said, “Here am I.”

⁵ And He said, “Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

⁶ Moreover He said, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

⁷ And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

⁸ And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

⁹ Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel hath come unto Me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.

¹⁰ Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

¹¹ And Moses said unto God, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

¹² And He said, “Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”

7 Then said the high priest, “Are these things so?”

² And Stephen said, “Men, brethren and fathers, hearken! The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

³ and said unto him, ‘Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’

⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran; and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed himself into this land wherein ye now dwell.

⁵ And He gave him no inheritance in it — no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him as a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

⁶ And God spoke in this way: that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should be brought into bondage and be mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷ ‘And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,’ said God, ‘and after that shall they come forth, and serve Me in this place.’

⁸ And He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him

¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹ “Now there came a dearth and great affliction over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he first sent out our fathers.

¹³ And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph’s kindred were made known unto Pharaoh.

¹⁴ Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

¹⁵ So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers.

¹⁶ And they were carried back into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.