Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise to the Lord for His Fidelity to Israel.
99 The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [with submissive wonder]!
He sits enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!
2
The Lord is great in Zion,
And He is exalted and magnified above all the peoples.
3
Let them [reverently] praise Your great and awesome name;
Holy is He.(A)
4
The strength of the King loves justice and righteous judgment;
You have established fairness;
You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).
5
Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His footstool;
Holy is He.
6
Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the Lord and He answered them.
7
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
They kept His testimonies
And the statutes that He gave them.(B)
8
You answered them, O Lord our God;
You were a forgiving God to them,
And yet an avenger of their evil practices.
9
Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His holy hill [Zion, the temple mount],
For the Lord our God is holy.
11 Elkanah [and his wife Hannah] returned to Ramah to his house. But the child [Samuel] served the Lord [a]under the guidance of Eli the priest.
The Sin of Eli’s Sons
12 The sons of Eli [Hophni and Phinehas] were [b]worthless (dishonorable, unprincipled) men; they did not know [nor respect] the Lord 13 and the custom of the priests with [the sacrifices of] the people. When any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged [meat] fork in his hand; 14 then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did in Shiloh to all [the sacrifices of] the [c]Israelites who came there. 15 Also, before they burned (offered) the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest meat to roast, since he will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.” 16 If the man said to him, “[d]Certainly they are to burn (offer) the fat first, and then you may take as much as [e]you want,” then the priest’s servant would say, “No! You shall give it to me now or I will take it by force.” 17 So the sin of the [two] young men [Hophni and Phinehas] was very great before the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still blame me [for sinning]? For who [including myself] has [ever] resisted His will and purpose?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers [arrogantly] back to God and dares to defy Him? Will the thing which is formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”(A) 21 Does the potter not have the right over the clay, to make from the same lump [of clay] one object for honorable use [something beautiful or distinctive] and another for common use [something ordinary or menial]? 22 What if God, although willing to show His [terrible] wrath and to make His power known, has tolerated with great patience the objects of His wrath [which are] prepared for destruction?(B) 23 And what if He has done so to make known the riches of His glory to the objects of His mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory, 24 including us, whom He also called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles? 25 Just as He says in [the writings of the prophet] Hosea:
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And [I will call] her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”(C)
26
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”(D)
27 And Isaiah calls out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is only the remnant [a small believing minority] that will be saved [from God’s judgment]; 28 For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth [He will conclude His dealings with mankind] completely and without delay.”(E) 29 It is as Isaiah foretold,
“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us seed [future generations from which a believing remnant of Israelites came],
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah [totally rejected and destroyed]!”(F)
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