Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 63

A Psalm of David; when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

¹ O God, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You, my flesh longs and is faint for You, in a dry and weary land where no water is.

² So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory.

³ Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.

⁴ So will I bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.

⁵ My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips

⁶ When I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches.

⁷ For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice.

⁸ My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.

13 And the Lord said to Moses,

² Send men to explore and scout out [for yourselves] the land of Canaan, which I give to the Israelites. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader or head among them.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Get up this way by the South (the Negeb) and go up into the hill country,

¹⁸ And see what the land is and whether the people who dwell there are strong or weak, few or many,

¹⁹ And whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they dwell in are camps or strongholds,

²⁰ And what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is timber on it or not. And be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and scouted through the land from the Wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.

²² And then went up into the South (the Negeb) and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai [probably three tribes of] the sons of Anak were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³ And they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two [of them]; they brought also some pomegranates and figs.

²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshcol [cluster] because of the cluster which the Israelites cut down there.

²⁵ And they returned from scouting out the land after forty days.

²⁶ They came to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelite congregation in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, and brought them word, and showed them the land’s fruit.

²⁷ They told Moses, We came to the land to which you sent us; surely it flows with milk and honey. This is its fruit.

²⁸ But the people who dwell there are strong, and the cities are ^[a]fortified and very large; moreover, there we saw the sons of Anak [of great stature and courage].

²⁹ Amalek dwells in the land of the South (the Negeb); the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea and along by the side of the Jordan [River].

³⁰ Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it.

³¹ But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are.

³² So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.

³³ There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

14 And all the congregation cried out with a loud voice, and [they] wept that night.

² All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said, Would that we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!

³ Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?^(A)

⁴ And they said one to another, Let us choose a captain and return to Egypt.

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of Israelites.

⁶ And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the scouts who had searched the land, rent their clothes,

⁷ And they said to all the company of Israelites, The land through which we passed as scouts is an exceedingly good land.

⁸ If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense and the shadow [of protection] is removed from over them, but the Lord is with us. Fear them not.

²² When they were going about here and there in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is going to be turned over into the hands of men.

²³ And they will kill Him, and He will be raised [to life] again on the third day. And they were deeply and exceedingly grieved and distressed.

²⁴ When they arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the half shekel [the temple tax] went up to Peter and said, Does not your Teacher pay the half shekel?^(A)

²⁵ He answered, Yes. And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him [about it] first, saying, What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly rulers collect duties or tribute—from their own sons or from others ^[a]not of their own family?

²⁶ And when Peter said, From other people ^[b]not of their own family, Jesus said to him, Then the sons are exempt.

²⁷ However, in order not to give offense and cause them to stumble [that is, to cause them ^[c]to judge unfavorably and unjustly] go down to the sea and throw in a hook. Take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find there a shekel. Take it and give it to them to pay the temple tax for Me and for yourself.