Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
נ (Nun)
105 Your word is a lamp for my foot
and light on my path.
106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
that I will observe your righteous rulings.
107 I am very much distressed;
Adonai, give me life, in keeping with your word.
108 Please accept my mouth’s voluntary offerings, Adonai;
and teach me your rulings.
109 I am continually taking my life in my hands,
yet I haven’t forgotten your Torah.
110 The wicked have set a trap for me,
yet I haven’t strayed from your precepts.
111 I take your instruction as a permanent heritage,
because it is the joy of my heart.
112 I have resolved to obey your laws
forever, at every step.
Parashah 53: Ha’azinu (Hear) 32:1–52
32 “Hear, oh heavens, as I speak!
Listen, earth, to the words from my mouth!
2 May my teaching fall like rain.
May my speech condense like dew,
like light rain on blades of grass,
or showers on growing plants.
3 “For I will proclaim the name of Adonai.
Come, declare the greatness of our God!
4 The Rock! His work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
A trustworthy God who does no wrong,
he is righteous and straight.
5 “He is not corrupt; the defect is in his children,
a crooked and perverted generation.
6 You foolish people, so lacking in wisdom,
is this how you repay Adonai?
He is your father, who made you his!
It was he who formed and prepared you!
(ii) 7 “Remember how the old days were;
think of the years through all the ages.
Ask your father — he will tell you;
your leaders too — they will inform you.
8 “When ‘Elyon gave each nation its heritage,
when he divided the human race,
he assigned the boundaries of peoples
according to Isra’el’s population;
9 but Adonai’s share was his own people,
Ya‘akov his allotted heritage.
10 “He found his people in desert country,
in a howling, wasted wilderness.
He protected him and cared for him,
guarded him like the pupil of his eye,
14 Now I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and well able to counsel each other. 15 But on some points I have written you quite boldly by way of reminding you about them, because of the grace God has given me 16 to be a servant of the Messiah Yeshua for the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of presenting the Good News of God, so that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, made holy by the Ruach HaKodesh.
17 In union with the Messiah Yeshua, then, I have reason to be proud of my service to God; 18 for I will not dare speak of anything except what the Messiah has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by my words and deeds, 19 through the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Yerushalayim all the way to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the Good News of the Messiah. 20 I have always made it my ambition to proclaim the Good News where the Messiah was not yet known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation, 21 but rather, as the Tanakh puts it,
“Those who have not been told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.”[a]
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.