Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
99 Adonai is king; let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned on the k’ruvim; let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Tziyon;
he is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and fearsome name (he is holy):
4 “Mighty king who loves justice, you established
fairness, justice and righteousness in Ya‘akov.”
5 Exalt Adonai our God!
Prostrate yourselves at his footstool (he is holy).
6 Moshe and Aharon among his cohanim
and Sh’mu’el among those who call on his name
called on Adonai, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the column of cloud;
they kept his instructions and the law that he gave them.
8 Adonai our God, you answered them.
To them you were a forgiving God,
although you took vengeance on their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
bow down toward his holy mountain,
for Adonai our God is holy!
Parashah 26: Sh’mini (Eighth) 9:1–11:47
9 On the eighth day, Moshe called Aharon, his sons and the leaders of Isra’el, 2 and said to Aharon, “Take a male calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without defect, and offer them before Adonai. 3 Then tell the people of Isra’el, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering and a calf and a lamb, both a year old and without defect, for a burnt offering, 4 and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before Adonai; also a grain offering mixed with olive oil — because today Adonai is going to appear to you.’” 5 They brought what Moshe had ordered before the tent of meeting, and the whole community approached and stood before Adonai.
6 Moshe said, “This is what Adonai has ordered you to do, so that the glory of Adonai will appear to you.” 7 Moshe told Aharon, “Approach the altar, offer your sin offering and burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and the people. Then present the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as Adonai ordered.” 8 So Aharon approached the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself. 9 The sons of Aharon presented the blood to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. 10 But the fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver of the sin offering he made go up in smoke on the altar, as Adonai had ordered Moshe. 11 The meat and the skin were burned up completely outside the camp.
22 Aharon raised his hands toward the people, blessed them and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings. 23 Moshe and Aharon entered the tent of meeting, came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of Adonai appeared to all the people! (iii) 24 Fire came forth from the presence of Adonai, consuming the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
4 Therefore, since the Messiah suffered physically, you too are to arm yourselves with the same attitude. For whoever has suffered physically is finished with sin, 2 with the result that he lives the rest of his earthly life no longer controlled by human desires, but by God’s will. 3 For you have spent enough time already living the way the pagans want you to live — in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and forbidden idol-worship. 4 They think it strange that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, and so they heap insults on you. 5 But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 This is why he was proclaimed to those who have died; it was so that, although physically they would receive the judgment common to all humanity, they might live by the Spirit in the way that God has provided.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.