Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Mem
97 Oh, how I love your teachings!
I talk about them all the time.
98 Your commands are always with me,
and they make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers,
because I study your rules.
100 I understand more than those who are older,
because I obey your instructions.
101 I have avoided every path that leads to evil
so that I could obey your word.
102 You are my teacher,
so I will always do whatever you decide.
103 Your words are so sweet to me,
like the taste of honey!
104 I gain understanding from your instructions,
so I hate anything that leads people the wrong way.
The People Complain Again
11 The people started complaining about their troubles. The Lord heard their complaints. He heard these things and became angry. Fire from the Lord burned among the people. The fire burned some of the areas at the edge of the camp. 2 So the people cried to Moses for help. He prayed to the Lord and the fire stopped burning. 3 So that place was called Taberah.[a] The people gave the place that name because the Lord caused a fire to burn in their camp.
The 70 Older Leaders
4 The foreigners who had joined the Israelites began wanting other things to eat. Soon all the Israelites began complaining again. The people said, “We want to eat meat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt. That fish cost us nothing. We also had good vegetables like cucumbers, melons, chives, onions, and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our strength. We never eat anything—only this manna!” 7 (The manna was like small coriander seeds, and it looked like sap from a tree. 8 The people gathered the manna. Then they used rocks to crush it and cooked it in a pot. Or they ground it into flour and made thin cakes with it. The cakes tasted like sweet cakes cooked with olive oil. 9 The manna fell on the ground each night when the ground became wet with dew.)
17 Brothers and sisters, I want you to be very careful of those who cause arguments and hurt people’s faith by teaching things that are against what you learned. Stay away from them. 18 People like that are not serving our Lord Christ. They are only pleasing themselves. They use fancy talk and say nice things to fool those who don’t know about evil. 19 Everyone has heard that you do what you were taught, and I am very happy about that. But I want you to be wise about what is good and to know nothing about what is evil.
20 The God who brings peace will soon defeat Satan and give you power over him.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International